COUCH’S SPADEFOOT Scaphiopus couchii – Baird 1854

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HABITAT: Man-Made Oviposition Site, 2,300′, Sonora-Arizona Border

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PERSONAL NOTES: Scaphiopus couchii is an abundant species throughout it’s range and I have seen it frequently in the states [...]]]>
Adult, Typical Coloration, 1,800′, Pima County, Arizona

Adult, Abnormal Coloration, 1,800′, Pima County, Arizona

Adult, 3,000′, Santa Cruz Co., Arizona

Adult, 1,800′, Sonora, Mexico

Metamorphs, 400′, Baja California Sur, Mexico

COUCH’S SPADEFOOT
Scaphiopus couchii – Baird 1854

IDENTIFICATION:

DISTRIBUTION:

HABITAT:

Man-Made Oviposition Site, 2,300′, Sonora-Arizona Border

NATURAL HISTORY:

TAXONOMY:

TYPE:

PERSONAL NOTES:
Scaphiopus couchii is an abundant species throughout it’s range and I have seen it frequently in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico. During the monsoon season of 2001 and 2003 I observed this toad in the dry Coastal Lowlands, and around 2000′ elevation in the Tropical Thornscrub/Tropical Deciduous Forest transition zone in eastern Sonora. In September, 2004 while in Baja California Sur, Mexico I had the good fortune to time my visit with the arrival of a small hurricane; Scaphiopus couchii were one of the most commonly observed species on this trip. In the Viscaiño Desert near Guerrero Negro I stopped at large wash-bottom pools formed by the last hurricane to come through the region two weeks earlier, and observed many thousands of newly metamorphosed Couch’s spadefoot toads crowded around the fringes of the pools. As soon as I pulled my vehicle up to the edge of one pool, a mass of toadlets came rushing toward the shade it provided them from the intense sun they had been enduring.

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