Range in California: Red
Listen to this spadefoot:
A short example
More sounds of
Scaphiopus couchii
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Adult, Imperial County
© August 2004 William Flaxington |
Adult, Imperial County
© August 2004 William Flaxington |
Adult, Cochise County, Arizona |
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Adult female, Pima County, Arizona |
Adult male, Yuma County, Arizona |
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| Adult Male (top) in amplexus with Adult Female (bottom), Brewster County, Texas |
Adult male calling at night while floating on water, Brewster County, Texas |
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Male and female in amplexus, and single male, Pima County, Arizona |
Male and female in amplexus, Pima County, Arizona |
Male and female in amplexus, Pima County, Arizona |
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Eggs laid on grass in shallow water |
Recently-hatched tadpole, Yuma County, Arizona |
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Digging spades on hind feet |
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Habitat |
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Habitat, pools adjacent to an agricultural field, Yuma County, Arizona |
Short Videos |
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Male spadefoots call at night from a temporary rain pool.
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Male and female spadefoots in amplexus in a temporary rain pool. |
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Description |
| Size |
| Adults are 2 1/4 - 3 3/5 inches long from snout to vent (5.7 - 9.1 cm). |
| Appearance |
Variable in color and pattern, from greenish or brownish yellow to bright green
above, with a network of irregular dark markings, or black flecking. Males tend to be greener than females with fewer
markings. Whitish below. Wide-set eyes with no boss inbetween. Hard black spade on each hind foot is shaped like a sickle.
Tadpoles are an irridescent coppery bronze with golden spots or sheen, growing up to 1.8 - 2.4 cm. in length. No parotoid glands. |
| Voice (Listen) |
| A nasal groan descending in pitch similar to a lamb bleating. Calls at night from the edge of temporary ponds. |
| Behavior |
Nocturnal. Newly-transformed juveniles are also active in daylight. Terrestrial - spending most of its life (around 8 - 10 months each year) buried in the ground, and emerging briefly only during spring and summer rains. Low frequency sounds and vibrations caused by rainfall and thunder apparently stimulate emergence from the soil, rather than soil saturation. The location of refuge burrows is not known, but it is not thought to be in soil underneath dried up breeding pools. S. couchii is more adapted to extremely dry conditions than any other North American amphibian, remaining underground without emerging for as many as two rainless summers. During the summer, when rain allows surface activity, adults spend days and dry nights in shallow burrows that they dig themselves. Spades on hind feet assist in digging soil.
Longevity is estimated to be up to 11 years for males and 13 years for females.
S. couchii releases irritating skin secretions which probably deters predators. These secretions can cause sneezing, running nose, and watery eyes in humans, and extreme irritation if rubbed into the nose or eyes. (After handling a spadefoot then barely touching my eye, the eye swelled up and the other eye watered so badly I was unable to see well for about an hour. Wash your hands very well after handling this spadefoot!) |
| Diet |
| Eats a variety of invertebrates, many of which are winged and larval termites which also emerge during rains. Beetles, ants, grasshoppers, spiders, and crickets are also eaten. S. couchii can consume up to 55 percent of their body weight, which can be enough food to last a full year. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is aquatic. Fertilization is external. Couch's Spadefoots breed during times when scarce desert rainfall creates temporary pools from May through September. Most breeding occurs during the first night after pools form. Adults move up from underground hiding places and travel to the pool where males begin calling while floating on the water. Temporary pools are often in rocky streambeds, washes, at the edges of agricultural fields, in depressions beside roads and railroad tracks, and cattle tanks. In order for the eggs to hatch and larvae to successfully transform, the water needs to remain for a minimum of 7 - 8 days.
Breeding adults are estimated to be from 2 - 10 years old.
Females lay a clutch of more than 3,000 eggs, which hatch in less than a day, and tadpoles transform faster than any other North American anurans - in about 7 or 8 days. The duration can depend on the duration of the pool and the food source. Tadpoles will sometimes remain long-lasting pools, growing very large before they transform. In California, larvae have been observed entering metamorphosis in 7.5 - 8.5 days. At a location in West Texas, larvae transformed in 8-16 days.
Metamorphosed juveniles remain at the breeding pool for a few days, then move into nearby vegetation until the soil dries up, when they burrow into the ground or take refuge in cracks or holes. They emerge, along with adults on rainy nights, to feed, until they enter a permanent refuge for the dry season.
(One late afternoon in June in Alpine Texas, I sat on a porch as a heavy thunderstorm moved through the area. I watched a dry grassy spot in the front yard slowly fill with rainwater. In less than an hour after the heavy rain began, before dark, a few Couch's spadefoots had emerged and were calling loudly from the shallow water. They called throughout the night. By the morning they were done.) |
| Range |
Ranges from central Texas and southwest Oklahoma, through north-central New Mexico and south-central Arizona, south to
the tip of the Baja peninsula, west to extreme southeast California. In California, this spadefoot occurs in scattered populations east of the Algodones sand dunes in Imperial county, north into San Bernardino county. |
| Habitat |
Desert and arid regions of grassland, prairie, mesquite, creosote bush, thorn forest, sandy washes.
From sea level to 5900 ft. elevation (1800 m). |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Couch's Spadefoot toads are absent from former habitat which has been urbanized or converted to agriculture. But they persist throughout their small range in California. Road and railroad construction and probably agricultural irrigation have increased the number of temporary pools that can be used. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Pelobatidae |
Spadefoot Toads and Relatives |
| Genus |
Scaphiopus |
North American Spadefoots |
| Species |
couchii |
Couch's Spadefoot
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Original Description |
Baird, 1854 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 7, p. 62
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Scaphiopus - Greek - skaphis - shovel or spade and Greek - pous - foot - refers to the shape and adaptation of hind foot for digging
couchii - honors Couch, Darius N.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
None
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Related or Similar California Frogs |
Spea hammondii
Spea intermontana
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Degenhardt, William G., Charles W. Painter, & Andrew H. Price. Amphibians and Reptiles of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Williamson, Michael A., Paul W. Hyder, & John S. Applegarth. Snakes, Lizards, Turtles, Frogs, Toads & Salamanders of New Mexico. Sunstone Press, 1994.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Elliott, Lang, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson. Frogs and Toads of North America, a Comprehensive Guide to their Identification, Behavior, and Calls. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Lannoo, Michael (Editor). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, June 2005.
Wright, Anna. Handbook of Frogs and Toads of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press, 1949.
Davidson, Carlos. Booklet to the CD Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Vanishing Voices. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 1995.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
BLM:S |
Sensitive |
| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5 S2S3 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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IUCN:LC |
Least Concern |
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