''Incilius'' is genus of toads in the true toad 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 contains both species commonly called toads, and the true toads from the family Bufonidae {{Cat m ...

. They are sometimes known as the Central American toads or Middle American toads and are found in southern USA, Mexico,

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, and northern Pacific South America (Colombia and Ecuador). They are an ecologically and biogeographically diverse group of toads, including micro-

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 elsew ...

species such as '' Incilius spiculatus'' that are restricted to undisturbed

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

s, and widespread lowland species such as ''

Incilius valliceps The Gulf Coast toad (''Incilius valliceps'') is a species of toad native to eastern and southeastern Mexico and Central America as far south as Costa Rica. Description The Gulf Coast toad is a medium-sized toad species, ranging from in len ...

'' that predominantly occur in disturbed habitats.

Taxonomy and systematics

This genus was first described in 1863 by

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested ...

who designated the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

as ''

Incilius coniferus The evergreen toad (''Incilius coniferus'') is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. Conservation status It is potentially threatened by habitat loss, but is still categorized as a least-concern species by the International Union for Co ...

''. This proved unpopular and these toads were known under the genus ''

Bufo ''Bufo'' is a genus of true toads in the amphibian family Bufonidae. As traditionally defined, it was a wastebasket genus containing a large number of toads from much of the world, but following taxonomic reviews most of these have been moved to ...

'' until the early 2000s. The current delineation of the genus follows Mendelson ''et al''. (2011) who brought ''Cranopsis''/''Cranophryne''/''Ollotis'' and ''Crepidius''/''Crepidophryne'' into

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

with ''Incilius'', while providing evidence for removing ''

Rhinella ''Rhinella'', commonly known as South American toads, beaked toads or Rio Viejo toads, is a genus of true toads native to Neotropical parts of Mexico, Central and South America. Additionally, the cane toad has been introduced to Australia, the Ca ...

'' from ''Incilius''. Taxonomy and systematics of the toads now considered to be classified in this genus had seen many changes after ''Incilius'' was resurrected to

split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enterta ...

''Bufo'' in the less than a decade before this 2011 paper. ''I. coniferus'' went through some five name changes in less than a dozen years. However, the

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic grou ...

of ''Incilius'' continues to be threatened by ''

Incilius bocourti ''Incilius bocourti'' (formerly ''Bufo bocourti''; common name Bocourt's toad) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is found in southwestern Guatemala and in Chiapas in the adjacent Mexico. Its phylogenetic position is uncertain; it ...

'', which might be the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

of ''

Anaxyrus ''Anaxyrus'' is a genus of true toads in the family Bufonidae. The genus is endemic to North and Central America. Some authors consider ''Anaxyrus'' to be a subgenus within ''Bufo ''Bufo'' is a genus of true toads in the amphibian family Bufo ...

''. Another discussion has been the taxonomic level at which the genus is recognized. ''Incilius'' did not see wide recognition before the large-scale revision of amphibian systematics by

Darrel Frost Darrel Richmond Frost (born 1951) is an American herpetologist and systematist. He was previously head curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, as well as president of both the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Repti ...

and colleagues in 2006, then under the name ''Cranopsis'', including the former "''

Bufo valliceps The Gulf Coast toad (''Incilius valliceps'') is a species of toad native to eastern and southeastern Mexico and Central America as far south as Costa Rica. Description The Gulf Coast toad is a medium-sized toad species, ranging from in le ...

'' group" and some related species. However, others have argued that ''Incilius'' should be treated as a

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

of ''

''.

Species

There are at present 39 species: The AmphibiaWeb recognizes ''Incilius intermedius'' (Günther, 1858) as a valid species, whereas the Amphibian Species of the World considers it a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of '' Incilius occidentalis'' (Camerano, 1879).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3007261 Amphibian genera Amphibians of North America Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of South America Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope