22 BULLETIN 160, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SCAPHIOPUS HAMMONDII MULTIPLICATUS (Cope) 



Mexican Spade-foot Toad 



1863. S[caphiopus] multiplicatus Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 

 15, p. 52, Mar. 



1879. Scaphiopus dugesii Brocchi, Bull. See. Philom. Paris, ser. 7, vol. 3, no. 1, 

 p. 23. — Brocchi, 1882, Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans I'Amerique 

 Centrale, recherches zoologiques, pt. 3, sect. 2, p. 24, pi. 9, fig. 4 (Mexico;. 



Type locality. — "Valley of Mexico," State of Mexico, Mexico. 



Range. — From Sonoyta in northwestern Sonora south through 

 western Chihuahua and Durango to northern Jalisco; east to Mi- 

 quihuana in western Tamaulipas, and south through San Luis Potosi 

 to Guanajuato, Mexico, and Federal District. North of the Mexican 

 boundary, the species S. hammondii and its geographic races are 

 distributed from the northern Okanagan Lake district (Vernon) of 

 British Columbia, south through western Washington, Oregon, Neva- 

 da, and California, to northern Lower California (Ensenada) ; east 

 to the western margin of the great plains in northwestern North 

 Dakota (Fort Union); and south along the great plains to western 

 Kansas, the panhandle district of Texas, and to San Antonio and 

 El Paso. 



Remarks. — The type (U.S.N.M. No. 3694) was sent by John 

 Potts to the Smithsonian Institution. The actual preservation of the 

 type is fairly good, notwithstanding numerous incisions made by 

 Cope. There is a transverse incision across the right suprascapular 

 region, one across angle of jaw, a longitudinal and two crosswise cuts 

 along the sacrum, and an oblique cut on the upper surface of the 

 right tibia. There are lengthwise and transverse cuts on the throat, 

 and the viscera have been exposed by a long crescentic incision. The 

 skin has been freed from the upper surface of the head. 



The two cotypes of Scaphiopus dugesii (M.H.N. P. No. 281a, 

 parchment labels 86-287, 86-288) are both young individuals, with 

 head-and-body lengths of 32 mm. and 33.5 mm., respectively. Black 

 spots are present on the upperparts and the black inner metatarsal 

 tubercle is quite distinct. Both of these cotypes are typical young 

 individuals of this Mexican form. Alfred Duges is listed in the 

 catalogue as the collector of the cotypes of S. dugesii. 



Specimens from northern Sonora have a relatively smoother skin 

 on the dorsal surface of the body than those taken farther south. 

 Some of those from northern Sonora differ in no appreciable manner 

 from California and Nevada specimens unquestionably referred to 

 (S. hammondii. Along the southern border of the known range of 

 Scaphiopus in Mexico, individuals with very warty skins and with an 

 appreciable thickening of the skin in the parotoid region predominate. 

 Between these two extremes are various intermediate individuals, 

 and no satisfactory method for determining the status or relations of 



