Sorry for the not so good pictures. I was fending off 6-8 children who were all asking me if they could take it home. I released the Spea (sp?) shortly after letting the kids hold it and letting them know why they were not going to be bringing it home.











Thank you,

Travis

Great find! I have yet to see one of these little guys. Love the eyes on them!

These guys always so cool looking.

Thanks guys.

I am wanting to log this on NAFHA and need to know if it is intermontana or bombifrons.

Nice Travis. Log the toad as Spea intermontana, they are Great Basin spadefoot toads. If yo go out night driving in most places in the basin they are a very common sight. I just found gobs of them last weekend I have to log.

So you are sure this is not bombifrons then? From the info I looked at online it was difficult for me to conclude intermontana and it looked more like bombifrons to me. The only issue I could find with it being bombifrons it that from the range data I found, that would make this a range extension by about 60-80 miles.

Where did you find it? I had assumed you found it in Spokane County, or at least WA. If so, the intermontana is the only spadefoot in the state and that one looks just like all the ones I've seen.

Yes about 5 minutes drive from ID, found at Saltese Lake, just a west and over a hill from Liberty Lake. Thanks for the clarification, sometimes the stuff you find online isn't that helpful.

What characteristics separate the two species?

Not a whole lot visually from what I gather, but the plains spadefoot will be on the east side of the Rockies.

Hmm, well I wish there was some way to tell the difference other than location. Image search for each species pushed me to think bombifrons but that was just based on coloration which I know is rather useless a lot of the time. After looking at the below range map I thought 'maybe' it was bombifrons, after all range maps are not perfect. But I concede this search as I don't know enough phib related to say one way or the other.

S. bombifrons range


S. intermontana range


"Spea intermontana can be distinguished from S. bombiffrons (Also found in Wyoming) by the glandular (rather than bony) interorbital boss and the longer, slightly narrower spade"
http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/ ... otToad.pdf pg. 5 of 57

I did not get a picture of its spade...