Oak Toad - Bufo quercicus

• Diagnostic Features:
  • Size: 0.75 to 1.25 inches (19 to 33 mm)
  • Color:
    • Pearl gray to black ground color, some are almost entirely black
  • Other:
    • Four or five pairs of spots on back are black or brown
    • Some warts are red, orange or reddish-brown
    • Conspicuous light middorsal stripe that may be white, cream, yellow or orange
    • Back finely tuberculate
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    • This frog's habitat is southern pine woods. Moist areas are required for shelter, and pools or small bodies of water are necessary for breeding. More common in grassy areas in woods.
  • Behavior:
    • Hides under all manner of objects, but is more active by day than other toads
  • Breeding:
    • Breeding occurs from April to mid-October, depending on the arrival of warm heavy rains
    • The female lays eggs in beadlike chains of 2 - 8 eggs, total of about 700.
    • Breeding occurs in shallow pools, ditches, cypress and flatwoods ponds, etc.
• Voice: Sonogram - Call ( Long County )
  • Like peeping of newly hatched chicks, high-pitched, earsplitting in large choruses
  • Sausage-shaped vocal sac
    
• Tadpoles:
  • Tadpole stage: 60 days
  • Transformed Size 7 - 8 mm
  • 
  • to 28 mm TL;
  • LTRF 2/3
  • P-2/P-3 ca. 2.0; marginal papillae do not extend to lateral tips of P-3;
  • body appears black, but at least large specimens with iridophores (visible at slight magnification) that form subtle mottling;
  • dorsum of tail muscle with definite white bands that persist in preservative (slight magnification may be needed);
  • snout curves abruptly downward in lateral view;
  • summer breeder in temporary pools that form after heavy rains in Coastal Plain from southeastern Virginia to Mississippi River
• Range:
  • Coastal plain from southeast Virginia to eastern Louisiana; a northeastward extension in Alabama; and south throughout Florida
  • In Georgia, Bufo quercicus is found primarily in the southern coastal part of the state.

    

  • In Light Blue: Williamson, Gerald K. & Moulis, Robert A., Distribution of Amphibians and Reptiles in Georgia, Special Publication No. 3, Savannah Science Museum, Inc. Savannah, Georgia, 1994
  • In Green: Sound Recordings
  • In Yellow: From Both '94 study and Sound Recordings
  • In Magenta: Photograph, not found by '94, may or may not be sound record
  • In Medium Blue: Photograph and in '94 study, may or may not be sound record 
  • In Orange: County Record by other Herp Atlas Volunteers
  • In Red: US Distribution from various sources

May 25, 2008 - wwknapp@mindspring.com