KEYS TO FROGS AND TOADS 



tat: higher portions of grassland mostly, common on prairie roads at night. 

 Breeding: in temporary shallow pools only, and only immediately after rains 

 at temperatures above 12° C, any time March to September. Call: a long 

 raucous ratde or fast high pitched clanking trill, cjuite distinctive. Eggs: in 

 long strings in shallows distinguished by the diameter of the jelly being less 

 between eggs than across eggs and by a circular capsule of jelly enclosing each 

 egg within a continuous gelatinous tube. Tadpoles: brown, fair swimmers 

 and shy, tending to hide on disturbance. Descriptions: eggs, Bragg (1937); 

 larvae, Bragg (1936), Smith (1946);^^ adults, Bragg (1940), Wright and 

 Wright (1942). 



4. Bnjo compactilis Wiegmann (Desert Toad) 



Distribution: about western third of Oklahoma, west of a line including 

 Harper and Jefferson counties; rare in northwest (uncertain in Panhandle) 

 very abundant southwest. Habitat: short-grass plains and mesquite savannahs. 

 Breeding: after rains only, in almost any standing water, especially if shallow, 

 may appear in deep and muddy cattle tanks. Eggs: in strings, their color 

 brown and yellow. Tadpoles: light-colored, greenish-gray or brown, spotted 

 with lighter brown and with light streak through eye and another along base 

 of tail, laterally. Movements fast and t^uick, on disturbance each races along 

 bottom for a few feet and stops quickly on bottom or beneath debris and re- 

 mains still as though depending upon protective coloration which seems often 

 to be effective. Descriptions: eggs, Wright and Wright ( 1942) ; larvae, Wright 

 (1929); adults, Wright and Wright (1942). 



5. Bnfo insidior Girard (Northern Little Green Toad) 



Distribution: western third of Oklahoma east to Murray-Carter County 

 line and western Garvin County in south; not abundant. Habitat: short-grass 

 plains, mesquite savannahs, and gypsum-hill regions. Breeding: imperfectly 

 known but they have been found calling in shallow pools and ditches with 

 Bufo compactilis, B. cognatus, B. woodhousii woodhousii, Scaphiopus couchii, 

 and several of the smaller forms (Pseudacris, Microhyla). Eggs: unknown. 

 Tadpoles: not described with certainty but probably the description of the 

 larvae of Bu]o debilis by Smith ( 1934) applies, since adults were differentiated 

 from those of Bujo debilis by Taylor (1936), and Smith in Kansas must have 

 been studying Bujo insidior as now known. 



6. Bujo punctatus Baird and Girard (Canyon Toad) 



Distribution: questionable, known from few specimens in western and 

 southern Oklahoma and one record from the mountains of northern Mc- 

 Curtain County (Trowbridge, 1937). Rare except in the rougher portion of 

 the Wichita Mountains of Comanche County. Habitat: almost all adults 

 taken have been in rough, rocky areas. Breeding: in rocky pools of the habitat 

 and probably in cattle tanks (young have been seen on shores of such in the 

 west). Eggs: single or in very short strings, colored black and white, Wright 



^8 Smith's figure of the mouth parts is excellent. 



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