''Adenomus kelaartii'' (Kelaart's toad or Kelaart's dwarf toad) is a species of

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scient ...

in the family

Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category contains both species commonly called toads, and the true toads from the family Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, cat ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Sri Lanka, where it is found in the south-west of the island at elevations between 30 and 1,230 m. The specific name ''kelaartii'' honours

Edward Frederick Kelaart Lieutenant Colonel Edward Frederick Kelaart (21 November 1819 – 31 August 1860) was a Ceylonese-born physician and naturalist. He made some of the first systematic studies from the region and described many plants and animals from Sri Lanka. B ...

, a Ceylonese-born physician and zoologist.

Description

Kelaart's toad is a fairly small species with females having a snout-to vent length of and males . The skin in some individuals is smooth but in others it bears spiny warts. The upper parts are brown more or less blotched with darker colour and the underparts are cream or white, blotched with brown and sometimes speckled with red flecks. In some individuals, there are both red and blue flecks on the underside.

Distribution and habitat

Kelaart's toad is

to southwestern Sri Lanka where it is found at altitudes of up to above sea level. It does not have a continuous distribution as its range is fragmented into a number of separate locations. Its typical habitat is tropical humid forests where it occurs in the leaf litter on the ground near upland streams. It sometimes climbs into the lower parts of trees and has also been seen on sandbanks beside rivers, in rock crevices, in rotting logs and in holes in trees.

Biology

Kelaart's toad is active both by day and by night. During the breeding season males call from beside bodies of water including mid-stream boulders. Females lay up to one thousand colourless eggs in a single strand, usually in a permanent pool. The

tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found ...

s are also colourless at first but become grey as they develop and later dark brown. Metamorphosis takes place after about seven weeks and the juvenile toads emerging from the water are about long.

Status

Kelaart's toad is fairly common in suitable habitat within its range but it occupies a total area of less than and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has assessed it as being a "vulnerable species". The chief threats it faces are the destruction of its forest habitat as trees are cut down and the land turned to agricultural use. However it is present in several protected areas and the IUCN advocates better management of these reserves.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adenomus Kelaartii Adenomus Endemic fauna of Sri Lanka Frogs of Sri Lanka Amphibians described in 1858 Taxa named by Albert Günther Taxonomy articles created by Polbot