Incilius nebulifer (Girard, 1854)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Incilius > Species: Incilius nebulifer

Bufo granulosus Baird and Girard, 1852, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 6: 173. Holotype: USNM by original designation; USNM 2595 according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 70, and Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 33. Type locality: "between Indianola and San Antonio, Texas", USA; restricted to "San Antonio, Bexar County", Texas, USA, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 360. Restricted to "Indianola, Calhoun County, Texas", USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 66. Preoccupied by Bufo granulosus Spix, 1824. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 315, regarded both restrictions as invalid due to not being based on disclosed evidence. 

Bufo nebulifer Girard, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 87. Replacement name for Bufo granulosus Baird and Girard, 1852. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 315, suggested that this publication appeared in 1856, but the 1854 conforms to the dates of publication provided by the publishers through Fox, 1913, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Index, 1812–1912: xi. 

Bufo nebulifera — Baird, 1859, Rep. Upon Explor Surv. Route Railroad Mississippi–Pacific Ocean, 10 (Part 6, No. 4): 44. 

Chilophryne nebulifera — Cope, 1862, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 14: 358.

Incilius nebulifer — Cope, 1863, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 15: 50.

Cranopsis nebulifer — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 364.

Ollotis nebulifer — Frost, Grant, and Mendelson, 2006, Copeia, 2006: 558, by implication. Species name assumed to be a noun in apposition (Art. 31.2.2, 1999 Code)

Incilius nebulifer — Frost, Mendelson, and Pramuk, 2009, Copeia, 2009: 418–419, by implication.

Bufo (Incilius) nebulifer — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 315. See comment under Bufonidae regarding how this arrangement is part of a a system that requires widespread paraphyly. 

Common Names

Nebulous Toad (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 23; Rhoads, 1895, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 47: 396; Strecker, 1915, Baylor Univ. Bull., 18: 52).

Gulf Coast Toad (as "Bufo valliceps": Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 66; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 311; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 11; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 18; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 44; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 11; Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 69; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 8; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 13).

Gulf Coast Toad (Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37:9; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 18; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 16).

Coastal Plain Toad (Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 6).

Mexican Toad (as "Bufo valliceps": Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: x; Viosca, 1949, Pop. Sci. Bull., Louisiana Acad. Sci., 1: 10).

Distribution

Gulf coast of Mississippi west through East and Central Texas almost to the Big Bend region of that state (USA); south through eastern Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas to Hidalgo and central Veracruz, Mexico. Isolated record from Montgomery County, south-central Alabama, USA. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Mexico, United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Arkansas, United States of America - Louisiana, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - Texas

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Incilius valliceps by Mulcahy and Mendelson, 2000, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 17: 173, where it had been placed by Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 81; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 319. See comment under Incilius valliceps. Mendelson, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 424–427, provided a detailed account, map for the USA, and conservation status. Mulcahy, Morrill, and Mendelson, 2006, J. Biogeograph., 33: 1889–1904, reported on the historical biogeographic relationship with Incilius valliceps. Mendelson, Mulcahy, Williams, and Sites, 2011, Zootaxa, 3138: 1–34, suggested that this species is a member of a monophyletic Incilius valliceps group and in a subgroup they referred to as the Lowland group (the name Incilius valliceps subgroup is available—DRF) that includes Incilius gemmifer, Incilius luetkeni, Incilius mazatlanensis, Incilius nebulifer, and Incilius valliceps. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2007, Anf. Rept. Coahuila México: 40–41, provided an account (as Bufo nebulifer) for Coahuila, Mexico. Oliver-López, Woolrich-Piña, and Lemos-Espinal, 2009, Fam. Bufonidae Mex.: 83–84, provided an account for Mexico (as Ollotis nebulifer). Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 38–39, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Farr, Lazcano, and Lavín-Murcio, 2013, Herpetol. Rev., 44: 633, discussed the range in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 180–186, provided an account that summarized relevant literature for USA populations. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 144–145, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 187, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2015, Check List, 11(1642): 1–11, noted the occurrence of the species in Hidalgo, Mexico. Reviewed by Mendelson, Kinsey, and Murphy, 2015, Zootaxa, 3974: 517–537. Birkhead, McGuire, Conley, and Ward, 2017, Herpetol. Rev., 48: 120, noted a specimen from Montgomery, south-central Alabama, but could not resolve whether this collection represents a relict population, or a released individual or breeding population. Further sightings in this region of Alabama available on iNaturalist.  Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 355–356, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Guyer and Bailey, 2023, Frogs and Toads of Alabama: 53–49, provided a detailed account for Alabama, USA. Tepos-Ramírez, Garduño-Fonseca, Peralta-Robles, García-Rubio, and Cervantes Jiménez, 2023, Check List, 19: 269–292, discussed the distribution, identification, and conservation status of the species in Queretaro, Mexico. Bassett, 2023, Reptiles & Amphibians, 30(e18486): 1–18, provided an updated county distribution map for Texas, USA.  

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