Bella Vista Toad

Common English Names: Bella Vista Toad, Burrowing Toad.

International Conservation Status (IUCN, 2013): Least Concern.
National Conservation Status (AHA, 2012): Not Threatened.

Continental Distribution: Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

Distribution within Argentina: Buenos Aires, Chaco, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, La Pampa, and Santa Fe.

Description: Medium size (65-80mm). Male smaller than the female. "Toad" appearance: robust body and short limbs. Wide head and short snout. Dorsal skin appears thick, rough, warty, and with keratinized spots. Tympanum somewhat visible. Notable but not very prominent cephalic crests. Sharp and conspicuous infraorbital. Small parotoid glands. Horizontal pupil. Tarsal fold absent. Dorsal coloration greenish or green-brownish with irregular dark spots, often with a clear or yellowish vertebral line from the snout to the cloaca. Granular whitish or yellowish belly, somewhat more pigmented in the posterior third. Males during the breeding season with dark nuptial calluses and a dark middle vocal sac with light spots.

Habitat: Various Pampas environments. In burrows dug with its hind limbs up to 30cm deep in grasslands, reed beds, and garden lawns. Under natural and anthropogenic objects. Peridomestic.

Habits: Crepuscular and nocturnal. Terrestrial, burrowing, and walking.

Diet: Mainly ants, but also beetles, arachnids, and other arthropods.

Reproduction: From August to March. In temporary puddles and permanent watercourses and bodies after rain. Axillary amplexus. Dark eggs (more than 9000) in gelatinous strings ("ganga") longer than 10m, among submerged aquatic vegetation.

Behavior: Hunts passively from the entrance of the burrow or actively on ant trails. When attempting to extract it from the burrow or when threatened, it inflates its body and seals the opening with its body (fragmosis).

Call: Emits a prolonged and high-pitched trill "trrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiii" from the water. Most frequent during twilight and at night. Less frequently, also during the day.

Common Detection Method: Visual and auditory.

Comments: Species dedicated to the Argentine zoologist Katty Fernández. Very similar to the sympatric species Rhinella dorbignyi. It differs by having less prominent cephalic crests and developed infraorbital. Parotoids sparsely warty and elongated up to twice the eye diameter.

Author of this description: Walter Prado