The European green toad (''Bufotes viridis'') 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 toad found in steppes, mountainous areas, semi-deserts, urban areas and other habitats in mainland Europe, ranging from far eastern France and Denmark to the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

and Western Russia. As historically defined, the species ranged east through the Middle East and Central Asia to western China, Mongolia and northwestern India, and south through Italy and the Mediterranean islands to North Africa. Following genetic and morphological reviews, 14 population (all largely or entirely Asian, except for the African and

Balearic green toad The Balearic green toad (''Bufotes balearicus'') is a toad belonging to the true toad family, Bufonidae, from Italy and islands in the western Mediterranean Sea. It is mostly a lowland species, but can be found as high as asl in central Italy. ...

s) are now regarded as separate species. These species and the European green toad are placed in their own genus ''

Bufotes ''Bufotes'', the Eurasian green toads or Palearctic green toads, is a genus of true toads (family Bufonidae). They are native to Europe (absent from the British Isles, most of Fennoscandia, most of France and the Iberian Peninsula), western an ...

'', but they were included in ''

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 t ...

''.

Description

The spots on the back vary from green to dark brown and sometimes red spots appear, too. The underside is white or very lightly coloured. The European green toad will change colour in response to heat and light changes. Females are larger than males and can lay 9,000 to 15,000 eggs at a time. It can reach a maximum size (head and body length) of , but growth to this size is rare.

Diet

''Bufotes viridis'' eats a variety of

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

and

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

, mainly

crickets Crickets are orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literature, such as Imms,Imms AD, rev. Richards OW & Davies RG (1970) ''A General Textbook of Entomology'' 9th Ed. Methuen 8 ...

, meal worms, small butterflies, earthworms, moths, beetles and

caterpillars Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Symp ...

. There has also been a reported attack on a bat.

References

External links

* * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q243242 Bufotes Fauna of Croatia Amphibians of Europe Amphibians described in 1768 Taxa named by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti

Description

Diet

References

Further reading

External links