Duttaphrynus melanostictus
Black scars toad ( Bufo melanostictus )
The black scars toad ( Bufo melanostictus, also: Duttaphrynus melanostictus ) is a species of amphibian in the genus of the Real toads (Bufo ) within the family of toads ( Bufonidae ). It is the most common species of toad in the Southeast Asian region.
Features
Black scars toads have a plump, squat body and move continuously through short bouncer. The base color is oberseits variable gray to brown or reddish mottled with dark spots, underside dirty white and thereby partially light brown. Based on their individual warts pattern on the head, running in rows along the contours, one can distinguish individual copies of each other. The black, partly raised moldings around the eyes and on the muzzle give the animals a bit mask-like and edgy look. The Horn cusps of the warts on the body are black. Especially numerous are these pronounced on the flanks. There are also eight to nine strikingly large and prominent warts behind the head base. The eardrums are clearly visible and have at least two-thirds of the eye diameter. The venom glands ( parotid ) on both sides of the head are elongate, such as two or three one after the other eye; in the cane toad they are more triangular and about five times as large as the eye.
The males are much smaller than females, and there are regional differences within species. Measure a female in Thailand 115 millimeters, it brought a female Borneo to 78 millimeters and a male from there to 68 millimeters. In Pakistan, females have been observed with 150 mm snout-vent length. When rutting males throat stained bright orange or yellow; also develop these Bruns Wielen sealed to the inner sides of the first two fingers.
Dissemination
The black scars toad is the most common species of toad in South and Southeast Asia. She lives in the greater part of India, Sri Lanka and is spreading north to close to the Yangtze River in China. Disjunct they also live in a small area of China's Yellow River. In the Himalayas they are found at altitudes of 3000 meters. To the south are behind India and the Great Sunda Islands to Borneo and Java to their area of distribution. In recent years, it spread in the Southeast Asian archipelago to the east of what is due to suspensions or abductions by humans. Examples are the islands of Bali, Sulawesi, Ambon ( Moluccas ) and the bird's head in the northwest New Guinea.
2008 and 2009 there were in East Timor messages that the foreign troops had been introduced in the country, the cane toad (Bufo marinus ) in Australia, which because of the property this kind of as particularly invasive neozoon ( also compare: Fauna of Australia ) has developed into a political. The of the population, therefore, as Interfet Frog ( " Manduku Interfet " ) designated anurans have been but have always identified as black scars toads that were only a few years previously immigrated from Indonesia to Timor. She is now, however, there is relatively common.
Way of life
The black scars toad is a Kulturfolgerin. In Borneo it is found only in large settlements on Java in squares and gardens in the cities. Their spawning places them in ditches and flooded fields. On Timor, she was found in cities, coffee plantations and in the undergrowth on the coast.
The animals are nocturnal. During the day they hide under objects such as roots and rocks, where they are sometimes sociable and can be quite sedentary. With dusk they come out and go on the hunt for invertebrates. Often they are seen under streetlights, where they collect falling insects.
Reproduction
In resistant rainy Java Black scars toads were observed throughout the year in the spawning output. Maybe they oriented themselves also to the phases of the moon. When waxing moon and full moon, a greater number of spawning pairs was observed than at other times. In temperate zones of the western Himalayas, the monsoon opened the spawning season in July and August.
The seated on the banks of water bodies males express little melodious mating cries of " curr, curr, curr ," ending with a whistle. They are superior to females numerically far and behave to each other as aggressive. Once a male has found a female, it climbs on his back and clasped it in the armpit area ( axillary amplexus ). Then the couple is trying to find a quieter place within the spawning waters. Similar to the European common toad spawning is delivered in long, double-breasted gelatinous strings. These are anchored between aquatic plants and submerged branches, by the couple swims during spawning. The later hatched tadpoles are colored black on the upper side.