Midwife toad

Alytes obstetricans
Disc-tongued frogs (Alytidae)

CC-BY 2.0 rights : Laurent Lebois

Green-grey toad with a relatively large head, vertical irises and a white belly with dark breast markings. Some warts on the back and ♀ has red warts on the flanks.

The ♂ carries the eggs on his lower back. Mostly found on land though it needs to be in wet areas. Active at night and as a defence mechanism, they excrete a toxin through the warts. While mating the ♂ winds a long thread with eggs around its rear legs that initially are yellowish then become darker in colour. After approx. 3 weeks it deposits the eggs in water, after which the tadpoles immediately hatch. 

⇔ l. 4-6 cm

syn. BUFO OBSTETRICANS, BOMBINATOR OBSTETRICANS, RANA OBSTETRICANS, OBSTETRICANS VULGARIS, Common midwife toad

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