Spadefoot

Mr. GASCON: There are a couple of other species of frogs that are in a particular group of animals that had been perhaps the most threatened by all of these different impacts that we've had on the environment: the spadefoot toads. ❋ Unknown (2010)

She is currently working on an undergraduate research project where she is using mate choice tests to determine call rate preferences in female spadefoot toads. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Yet, half of spadefoot toads carry the monogenean Pseudodiplorchis, and each toad carries an average of five. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

There are 18 species of fish, 6 being endangered in Bulgaria including the rare asp Aspius aspius, 15 species of reptiles including the Aesculapian snake Elaphe longissimus, and 12 amphibians; one, the eastern spadefoot Pelobates syriacus, recently discovered in Bulgaria for the first time, is listed in the Red Book for Bulgaria. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The spadefoot toad is one of the few hosts that leads a life as isolated as its parasites; together they spend a year in the ground waiting for the chance to see their kind again. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

It is the spadefoot toad Scaphiopus couchi, and it is sleeping away the eleven-month drought that dominates every year. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

But one parasite positively revels in the spadefoot life, a worm named Pseudodiplorchis americanus. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

With so little opportunity to go from host to host, a spadefoot toad might seem a bad choice for a parasite. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

Some kind of unique skin secretion from the spadefoot probably guides them to their host. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

The influence of parasite infection on mating success in spadefoot toads, Scaphiopus couchi. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

Plains spadefoot toad Scaphiopus bombifrons also occurs (Alberta Provincial Parks Service, 1989). ❋ Unknown (2009)

There are, in fact, hardly any parasites that have gotten a foothold inside the spadefoot, and most of them can only mount feeble infections. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

The Sonoran Desert toad, desert spadefoot, northern casque-headed treefrog and others survive in the desert because of their abilities to excavate burrows as much as three feet deep where they spend nine or ten months at a time. ❋ Unknown (2009)