Kaloula baleata (Müller, 1836)

Common Names

Muller's Narrowmouth Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 90; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 51).

Flower Pot Toad (Iskandar, 1998, Amph. Java Bali: 55).

Brown Bullfrog (Iskandar, 1998, Amph. Java Bali: 55; Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64; Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 98; Grismer, 2012, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Seribuat Arch.: 54).

Black Bullfrog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 162).

Black Burrowing Frog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 162).

Gong Frog (McKay, 2006, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Bali: 33).

Javanese Bullfrog (McKay, 2006, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Bali: 33).

Distribution

Known definitely only from Java and Bali, Indonesia; likely unnamed species in the complex found in southern West Malaysia and adjacent Thailand, Greater and Lesser Sundas, including Sulawesi, Flores, Komodo, Sumbawa, Sumatra (Indonesia), Borneo (Indonesia and Malaysia) and Palawan I., Philippines. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Malaysia, West (Peninsular), Philippines, Thailand

Comment

For accounts see Mertens, 1930, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 42: 232–235; Berry, 1975, Amph. Fauna Peninsular Malaysia: 113–114; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 491–493; and Iskandar, 1998, Amph. Java Bali: 55–56, who implied that the Philippine Kaloula kalingensis could be recognized as distinct from Kaloula baleata. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 34–35, 208, provided a brief account for the Andaman Is. population. See brief account and photo by Manthey and Grossmann, 1997, Amph. Rept. Südostasiens: 55–56. Pauwels, Ohler, Dubois, and Nabhitabhata, 2000, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc., 47: 261–263, provided the record for Thailand. Orlov, Murphy, Ananjeva, Ryabov, and Ho, 2002, Russ. J. Herpetol., 9: 99, provided the record for Vietnam without reference to voucher specimens; that this is so far out of the range renders it questionable. Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 162, provided a brief characterization and photograph. Malkmus, Manthey, Vogel, Hoffmann, and Kosuch, 2002, Amph. Rept. Mount Kinabalu: 125, provided an account. Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 98–99, provided a very brief account, map for Thailand, and photograph. Teynié, David, Ohler, and Luanglath, 2004, Hamadryad, 29: 35, commented on its distribution in Laos, apparently based on material now reidentified. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 43, provided specific localities for Vietnam. McKay, 2006, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Bali: 33–34, provided a brief account and photograph. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions in the literature of varying completeness. Das and Kraus, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 214–215, provided the first record for Brunei. Wanger, Motzke, Saleh, and Iskandar, 2011, Salamandra, 47: 17–29, reported the species from central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Chan-ard, Cota, and Makchai, 2011, Amph. E. Region Thailand: 130, detailed the distribution in Thailand. See brief account by Grismer, 2012, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Seribuat Arch.: 54–55, for the Seribuat Archipelago, West Malaysia. Nidup, Wangkulangkul, Satasook, Bates, and Juthong, 2013, Proc. World Biodiversity Congr., 2013: 1–13, reported a population on Tarutao Island, Satun Province, Thailand. Chan, Blackburn, Murphy, Stuart, Emmett, Ho, and Brown, 2013, Herpetologica, 69: 329–341, referred the southern Vietnam records to Kaloula indochinensis and suggested that populations from Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Palawan Island (Philippines) may not be conspecific with Kaloula baleata sensu stricto. Blackburn, Siler, Diesmos, McGuire, Cannatella, and Brown, 2013, Evolution, 67: 2631–2646, provided molecular evidence that nominal Kaloula baleata is composed of five species: 1) Vietnam (now Kaloula indochinensis); 2) northern Peninsular Malaysia (now Kaloula latidisca); 3) Palawan; 4) Sulawesi; and 5) Kaloula baleata sensu stricto from Java and Bali. Chan, Grismer, and Brown, 2014, Zootaxa, 3900: 569–580, provided molecular evidence that nominal Kaloula baleata is a species complex of which they named the northern Peninsular Malaysia population as Kaloula latidisca, but implied (apparently following Blackburn et al., 2013, that the populations from a) southern Peninsular Malaysia; b) Borneo; c) Palawan; and d) Sulawesi may be distinct, with Kaloula baleata sensu stricto restricted to Java. Haas, Kueh, Joseph, bin Asri, Das, Hagmann, Schwander, and Hertwig, 2018, Evol. Syst., 2: 89–114, provided a brief account of morphology and natural history for the Sabah population. Somaweera, Azis, Resa, Panggur, Saverinus, and Muga, 2018, Amph. Rept. Komodo Natl. Park: 6, provided a brief characterization and photograph for the associated population on Komodo, Indonesia. Kennedi, Kusrini, Mardiastuti, and Ariefiandy, 2021, Media Konservasi , 26: 217–230, reported the species from Komodo, Flores, and Sumbawa Is., Indonesia. Gillespie, Ahmad, and Shia, 2021, Field Guide Frog Lower Kinabatangan Region Sabah: 27, provided a brief account, summarizing identification and life history in the Lower Kinabatangan Region, Sabah, Malaysia; this identification requires confirmation (DRF). Haas, Das, Hertwig, Bublies, and Schulz-Schaeffer, 2022, Guide to the Tadpoles of Borneo: 294–297, summarized the knowledge of habitat, reproduction, larval morphology and coloration. Badriah, Wahyuni, Usman, Mahrawi, Ratnasari, and Rifqiawati, 2022, Berkala Ilmiah Biologi, 13 (3): 1–8, reported specimens from Ujong Kulon National Park, extreme western Java, Indonesia. Karin, Krone, Frederick, Hamidy, Laksono, Amini, Arida, Arifin, Bach, Bos, Jennings, Riyanto, Scarpetta, Stubbs, and McGuire, 2023, PeerJ, 11(e15766): 1–19, reported on elevational range in northern Sulawesi. Gorin, Orlov, Bragin, Pawangkhanant, Milto, Le, Nguyen, Dufresnes, Suwannapoom, and Poyarkov, 2024, Herpetozoa, Wien, 37: 391–420, named two species, Kaloula discordia and Kaloula laosensis from within former Kaloula baleata. Those records should be read to get a sense of the overall reorganization of the complex; the authors also provided a molecular phylogenetic tree of the remaining three mtDNA lineages of the Kaloula baleata complex. 

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