Pseudo Forest Toad
Nectophrynoides pseudotornieri Menegon, Salvidio & Loader, 2004
Nectophrynoides pseudotornieri is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to the Uluguru Mountains in eastern Tanzania. Common names pseudo forest toad and false Tornier's viviparous toad have been proposed for it. Its specific name refers to its similarity to Nectophrynoides tornieri.
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
general
Named for the Latin 'pseudo' meaning false or seeming, indicating the species overall similarity to N. tornieri .
African Amphibians
morphology
This is a medium sized Nectophrynoides with slender limbs. Tympanum and tympanic annulus are completely absent. Parotoid glands are present on the scapular region as a slightly raised and weakly discernible mass. Snout is short. Nostrils are closer to the snout tip than eye and situated laterally. Canthus rostralis is slightly concave. Eye pupil is horizontal; eyes are prominent and visible ventrally. Fingers are widely webbed at base with a rib of webbing reaching the second tubercle of the third finger. Three phalanges of fourth toe are free of web on both inner and outer sides, two of the fifth toe. Tips of fingers are expanded and slightly truncated. Two subequal metacarpal tubercles are present. The inner metatarsal tubercle is about twice as large as the outer one. The skin surface is homogeneously covered by coni, lacking pointed tubercles and recognisable superficial glands, except for the abdomen and the inner side of the thigh which are covered by pavement-like glands. The tibia/foot ratio in the holotype is 0.93 (Menegon et al., 2004). The body appears dark brown dorsally. The dorsum is finely marbled with different shades of brown. The sides are slightly darker than
African Amphibians
behaviour
Hides under logs during the day and perch on vegetation approximately 1 m off the ground at night (Harper et al., 2010).
African Amphibians
biology
This medium-sized Nectophrynoides is known only from the Uluguru North Forest Reserve within the Uluguru Mountains of eastern Tanzania and is considered Endangered. Its large hands and feet, expanded toe tips, fingers webbed at the base, indistinct parotid glands, and lack of a tympanum make it distinguishable from other species of the genus.
African Amphibians
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Males grow to 25 mm (1.0 in) and females to 29 mm (1.1 in) in snout–urostyle length, corresponding to the holotype and the paratype, respectively. The parotoid glands are present but indistinct. The tympanum is absent. The fingers and the toes are partially webbed and have truncated discs on their tips. The dorsum is rough with small tubercles and is tan to golden in colour, with darker markings. Sometimes there are golden flecks on the sides. The lower surfaces are cream, with some dots under the throat. The eyes are golden.
Range & habitat
Nectophrynoides pseudotornieri occurs in montane rainforest (considered submontane by Menegon and colleagues) of the eastern slopes of the northern part of the Uluguru Mountains at elevations of 1,080–1,345 m (3,543–4,413 ft) above sea level. It probably is ovoviviparous as other Nectophrynoides, giving birth to tiny toadlets. This species is restricted to a single location within the Uluguru North Forest Reserve. Though this gives it some level of protection, habitat loss occurs inside the reserve and is threatening this species.
== References ==
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 2422550.