THE AMPHIBIA OF OKLAHOMA 



3. Bufo compactilis Wiegmann. 



Beckham (T). Adults and tadpoles of this toad were very abundant in 

 the southwestern part of the state but were not found in the northwest. The 

 presence of the species near Buffalo, Harper County (Bragg, 1946), makes 

 it probable in Ellis, western Woodward, western Dewey, and Roger Mills 

 counties, as well as in the Panhandle. It is, of course, possible that the Buffalo 

 colony is an isolated population. 



4. Bujo insidior Girard. 



Beckham (1). A single adult female was secured from a dry cistern on 

 a hilltop in the edge of the Gypsum Hills of this county in 1946. Despite a 

 six-inch rain two weeks previously here, its tadpoles could not be found in 

 two pools at the base of this hill, each of which contained thousands of spade- 

 foot tadpoles (S. bombijrons) and larval salamanders. I am puzzled as to 

 why I have never succeeded in securing tadpoles of this species in western 

 Oklahoma, even in regions where some years ago I had collected calling males 

 after rain. Former experience indicates that B. insidior commonly breeds with 

 Scaphiopus couchii and Bujo compactilis in southwestern Oklahoma. In 1946, 

 tadpoles of the latter were abundant but those of this spadefoot were not 

 found, perhaps because of differential developmental rates. None of either 

 was taken in 1947. Does B. insidior have an exceptionally high rate of devel- 

 opment also? 



5. Bujo punctatus Baird and Girard. 



Greer (1). A single specimen, active after a heavy rain in the morning 

 at Granite, Oklahoma, was taken at the base of a small mountain at edge of 

 the city. 



6. Bujo woodhousii jowleri Hinckley. 



Haskell (T), Pushmataha (1). Adults and tadpoles of this species were 

 common in southeastern Oklahoma in late May and in mid-June, 1946, and 

 in June, 1947. Several breeding congresses were visited in eastern Oklahoma, 

 especially in McCurtain County. No recently metamorphosed young were 

 seen, although those of the earlier breeding American toad were locally 

 abundant. 



It is commonly stated that tadpoles of Fowler's toads are difficult or im- 

 possible to distinguish from those of B. t. americanus (Holbrook). (See 

 Walker, 1946, pp. 35-36, for example). This is true of preserved animals. I 

 find it not true of live tadpoles in eastern 0\lahoma. Those of the American 

 toad are nearly black dorsally whereas those of Fowler's toad are mottled in 

 black and various shades of brown, even when quite young. Older tadpoles 

 of Fowler's toad in some pools are very much like those of the closely related 

 B. w. woodhousii , both in general appearance and in behavior, but neither 

 of these need ever be confused with tadpoles of the American toad in natural 

 waters, at least in Oklahoma. 



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