Incilius valliceps (Wiegmann, 1833)

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

Bufo valliceps Wiegmann, 1833, Isis von Oken, 26: 657. Syntypes: ZMB 3525–27, 3532, according to Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 81. According to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 68–71, the series of Bufo valliceps cotypes contains 5, not 8, specimens, although this might reflect that some of the syntypes had been traded to other collections. Even so, Kellogg's table on page 71–72 indicates only 4 specimens, although his written description clearly indicates 5. McCranie and Köhler, 2000, Southwest. Nat., 45: 71–74, discussed the type series and designated ZMB 3527 lectotype. Type localities: "mexicanischen"; "Mexico" and "Vera Cruz, Mexico"; restricted to "Veracruz, Veracruz", Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 351. Restricted to "Mexico" by lectotype designation and further reasoned by McCranie and Köhler, 2000, Southwest. Nat., 45: 71–74, to come from lowland Veracruz from the broad region of Jalapa, possibly from the areas of Misantla, Papantla, or Veracruz (city).

Bufo trachypus Wiegmann, 1833, Isis von Oken, 26: 657. Type(s): Not stated, although presumably originally ZMB. Type locality: Not stated; restricted to "Veracruz, Veracruz", Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 351. Unavailable name provided in synonymy of Bufo valliceps. Synonymy by Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 81.

Bufo valliceps — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 319.

Bufo valliceps wilsoni Baylor and Stuart, 1961, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 74: 199. Holotype: UMMZ 119391, by original designation. Type locality: "Jacaltenango (ca. 50 air-line kilometers northwest of Huehuetenango), Huehuetenango, Guatemala".

Bufo valliceps valliceps — Baylor and Stuart, 1961, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 74: 195.

Cranopsis valliceps — 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 valliceps — Frost, Grant, and Mendelson, 2006, Copeia, 2006: 558, by implication.

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

English Names

Southern Gulf Coast Toad (Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 19; Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 8). 

Distribution

Central Veracruz and an isolated record in Queretaro (Mexico) to northern Costa Rica on the Atlantic versant; from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to south-central Guatemala on the Pacific slope; isolated record for El Salvador, sea level to 2000 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua

Comment

See comments under Incilius luetkeni, Incilius melanochlorus, and Incilius nebulifer with which this species has been confused. Geographic variation discussed by Mendelson, 1998, Sci. Pap. Nat. Hist. Mus. Univ. Kansas, 8: 1–12, who discussed the potential species status of Bufo nebulifer (USA and northeastern Mexico) and Bufo valliceps wilsoni. Reviewed by Porter, 1970, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 94: 1–4 (in the sense of including Incilius nebulifer) but this needs to be read in light of Mendelson's later revisions. Cocroft and Ryan, 1995, Animal Behav., 49: 283–303, discussed advertisement call in an evolutionary context. Lips and Savage, 1996, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 109: 17–26, included this species (as Bufo valliceps) in a key to the tadpoles found in Costa Rica. See accounts by Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 69–70, and Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 87–89 (as Bufo valliceps). See accounts by Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 210–211, and McCranie and Wilson, 2002, Amph. Honduras: 193–200. El Salvador record provided by Köhler, 2003, Herpetol. Rev., 34: 161. Mendelson, 2001, Mesoam. Herpetol.: 10–19, provided taxonomic comments. Köhler, Veselý, and Greenbaum, 2005 "2006", Amph. Rept. El Salvador: 33–34, provided an account (as Bufo valliceps, and for El Salvador) and a color photograph. Mulcahy, Morrill, and Mendelson, 2006, J. Biogeograph., 33: 1889–1904, reported on the historical biogeographic relationship with Incilius nebulifer. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 38, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras. See comments by Sunyer, Páiz, Dehling, and Köhler, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 189–202, regarding Nicaraguan populations. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, misplaced the position of Incilius valliceps because the sequences in Genbank actually apply to Incilius leucomoyos (J. Mendelson, personal commun. 9 Dec 2011). 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. Oliver-López, Woolrich-Piña, and Lemos-Espinal, 2009, Fam. Bufonidae Mex.: 97–100, provided an account for Mexico (as Ollotis cristata). Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 104–115, compared this species to others in Central America and provided a range map and photograph. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2015, Check List, 11(1642): 1–11, noted the occurrence of the species in Hidalgo, Mexico. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 357–358, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Klank, Chaves, and Arias, 2020, Check List, 16: 753–757, detailed the range in Costa Rica and discussed erroneous records. Reyes-Velasco, Grünwald, Jones, and Ahumada-Carrillo, 2020, Rev. Latinoam. Herpetol., 3: 61–82, noted that collection records from Colima, Mexico, are likely based on misidentified Incilius mazatlanensis. Tepos-Ramírez, Garduño-Fonseca, Peralta-Robles, García-Rubio, and Cervantes Jiménez, 2023, Check List, 19: 269–292, discussed the distribution and conservation status of the species in Queretaro, Mexico. This records requires confirmation to insure it is not based on an anomalous Incilius nebulifer (DRF). Martínez-Fonseca, Holmes, Sunyer, Westeen, Grundler, Cerda, Fernández-Mena, Loza-Molina, Monagan, Nondorf, Pandelis, and Rabosky, 2024, Check List, 20: 63–64, provided a record from Refugio Bartola, Departamento Río San Juan, Nicaragua, 60 m elevation. Cubas-Rodríguez, Antúnez-Fonseca, Johnson, Serafim, and Medrano, 2024, Caribb. J. Sci., 54: 47–51, reported the species from the Bay Islands of Honduras, but could not determine whether it is a natural or introduced populations.  

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