Hurter's spadefoot toad or Hurter's spadefoot (''Scaphiopus hurteri'') is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
American spadefoot toad
The Scaphiopodidae are a family of American spadefoot toads, which are native to North America. The family is small, comprising only seven different species.
The American spadefoot toads are of typical shape to most fossorial (or burrowing) fro ...
(family Scaphiopodidae) found in the south central
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
(
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
,
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
); its range might extend to the adjacent northern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. It was once classified as a
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
of the eastern spadefoot toad (''
Scaphiopus holbrookii
''Scaphiopus holbrookii'', commonly known as the eastern spadefoot, is a species of American spadefoot toad (family Scaphiopodidae) endemic to North America.
Geographic range
It is found in the southeastern United States, except for mountainous ...
''), but it has been granted its own species status.
The
specific name ''hurterii'' is in honor of the Swiss-American naturalist and curator of the
St. Louis Academy of Sciences,
Julius Hurter
The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
.
Habitat
The species occurs in areas of sandy, gravelly, or soft, light soils in wooded or unwooded terrain and in sandy open woodland and
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
as well as in
mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas.
They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...
scrub. During periods inactivity it burrows underground. Breeding takes place in temporary pools formed by heavy rains.
References
Scaphiopus
Amphibians described in 1910
Amphibians of the United States
Endemic fauna of the United States
Fauna of the Southwestern United States
Fauna of the Southeastern United States
Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States)
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