''Scutiger boulengeri'' (common names: Boulenger's lazy toad, Boulenger's high altitude toad, Himalayan stream frog, and Xizang alpine toad) is a species of toad in the family Megophryidae. It is found in Nepal, India ( Sikkim) and western

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

( Sichuan, Yunnan,

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, Qinghai, and Tibet). A healthy population has been found at an elevation of in one of the lakes in the Gurudongmar Lake complex in Sikkimese Himalaya. This is one of the highest elevations where amphibians have ever been recorded ('' Pleurodema marmoratum'' has been recorded higher at the Andes).

Description

''Scutiger boulengeri'' males measure about and females about in snout–vent length. The head is flat, wider than long and with a rounded snout. The eyes are protruding. The tympanum is indistinct; the supratympanal fold is present. The dorsum is olive or greenish-grey with numerous warts. The ventrum is yellowish. The fingers have no webbing whereas the toes have rudimentary webbing. Tadpoles grow to a length of about .

Habitat and conservation

''Scutiger boulengeri'' is an alpine species living near streams and lakes in grassland habitats at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. They hibernate in loose soil from September to March or April. ''Scutiger boulengeri'' is a very common species but potentially threatened by diversion of water for agriculture, pollution from agrochemicals, and overgrazing. However, it is not considered threatened overall.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2706158 boulengeri Amphibians of China Fauna of Tibet Frogs of India Amphibians of Nepal Amphibians described in 1898 Taxa named by Jacques von Bedriaga