Costa Rican toads
Here I am, sitting in the middle of my room in Liberia, incredibly bored, waiting anxiosly for tomorrow`s soccer final and for the first of two frog hunts I will make this week. But I have decided to make summaries of my country`s different amphibian species. Obviously I will make them one by one but today I have decided to begin with toads. I will make one for tree frogs, other for true frogs, other for dart frogs, and other for leptodactylids. Oh, and I was forgetting glass frogs. I know you can go to amphibiaweb and search for this frogs but my purpose is to introduce you to some new species, you might not search for.
There are 14 toad species in Costa Rica, this go from the colorful Atelopus varius to the omnipresent Rhinella marina. Toads can be easilly distinguished from other amphibians because most of them have a warty skin, parotoid glands, and bony crests on the head. Although there are some exceptions like the Rhaebo haemetiticus. The parotoid glands produce a white secretion extremely toxic that the toad uses as defence. In my country some people believe that the toads are able to thow that "milk" directly to your face, as if it was thrown with a water gun, but this is not true. Toads only produce the "milk" when they are under a great stress, and aren´t able to throw it. Costa Rican toads lay there eggs in long lines in the water instead of the characteristic clutches that frogs lay.
Species description.
Atelopus varius
This toad is extremely variable in color but is unmistakable because of its long triangular head, small poison glands all around the body and its gait. Males can reach a size of 35 mm and females reach 40-45 mm. Females also have a longer snout and a more slender body. This toad lives exclusively in Costa Rica and Panama between the heights of 1200 and 2000 m.Their color can vary from a yellow, orande or lime green background with black blotches. Although there can also be present a red coloration and some old individuals become completely black. The belly is normally light yellow. This toads are found during the day near fast moving streams or near a cascade.
This toads avoid dehydration because there are near the spray the cascade forms or they stand on wet rocks. Tadpoles have a suction cup that allows them to be in a fast moving stream without being washed away by the current.
Incilius valliceps
This specie is also known as the gulf coast toad. Males reach a size of 76 mm while females reach 84 mm. This toads have a single row of warts that runs from the parotoid gland to the groin.There parotoid gland is about the same size as the eye. Their color can range from brown to light brown and reddish brown and they ussually have dark triangles or dark spots on their back. Normally a light vertebral stripe is present. This toad inhabits the southern United States, central america and northwestern Costa Rica. It normally lives in dry forest areas.
Incilius coniferus
This is a medium sized (males reach 72 mm and females 94 mm.) toad. This toad has the peculiarity that it can climb unlike most toads. It is called green climbing toad for something.This species has two rows of warts (one on each side) that go from the triangular shaped parotoid gland to the hind limbs. I. coniferus also has webbing between the outer three toes. This toads have a wide range of colors, they can be green, brown, yellow or even red.
As in most other toads, juveniles have a brighter coloration than adults. It can be found from Costa Rica to Ecuador being found at a maximum height of 1300 m. This toad, as mentioned before, can climb. It does so by making a "claw" with their fingers, and making use of their long legs. Tadpoles of this species complete a very fast metamorphosis.
Rhaebo haemetiticus
This is my favorite toad, not only because it was my first frog kept as a pet, but also because of its incredible camouflage resembling a dead leaf on the forest floor. This toads lack the classic warty skin but have the parotoid glands.R. haemetiticus color is normally a dark brown with one or two dark blotches that resemble holes on a dead leaf.
It also normally has a light vertebral line. This toads have a dark facial mask, helping them in there camouflage even more. This frogs reproduce at the end of the dry season on the remaining water poodles.
Rhinella marina
This is the biggest anuran in Costa Rica. Biggest females get to reach 230 mm but normally males and females range between 85-150 mm.Their back is covered with warts and sexualy active males have a spine on top of each wart. R. marina parotoid gland is extremely large. This toad normally has a brown or olive color although some individual may have a reddish or yellowish color.
It is found in Central and South America but it was introduced in Australia and other isles to control a beetle but it is now considered a pest in those places. It can be found either in the beach (believe me, I have found some of this at 60 meters from the shore) or in the forest up to a height of 1 600 m. Carolus Linnaeus named it Bufo marinus because he believed it also lived in the sea. R. marina females can lay up to 25 000 eggs in shallow ponds or even slow moving streams.
Tomorrow I will post about I. luetkenii and I. periglenes, and the bibliographies.
Note: The A. varius, I. coniferus, and I. valliceps photos don´t belong to me.
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Also known as the yellow toad. Males reach a size of 80-89 mm and females reach 76-107 mm. Males normally have a yellow color while females can be dark brow or dark green. Many times a light dorsal line is present. I. luetkenii are found in low heights (10-700m.)from southern Guatemala to Costa Rica. Is normally found during the night near water bodies. This toads lay between 1000-5600 eggs. Tadpoles complete the metamorphosis in about 36 days.
]Also known as the golden toad, this species is now probably extinct. Males have a bright orange color while females have orange spots on a black background. Males reach 41-48 mm while females reach 47-54mm in length. It is (was) found in an area measuring 10 km2 in Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. This toad breeds only during a few months, there are more males than females and females lay about 200 eggs in shallow water pools. During the rest of the year this toad normally lives underground. The last toad was observed in 1989. 
![[United States]](images/flags/United States.gif "United States")
Originally Posted by pez
Also like Incilius periglenes and Atelopus varius, but one is extint and the other critically endangered.
