TOADS

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Canadian Toad

Toad is a name that applies to specific members of the amphibian order Anura.  This group also includes frogs. 

The name toad refers to amphibians with short legs, stout bodies, and thick skins and are less aquatic as adults than the than the long-legged, slender-bodied frogs.  The so-called true toads are members of the Bufonidae family.  Their warty skin characterizes them.  Most toads have webbed feet.  They range in size from 1 inch to 7 inches (2.5-18 cm).  Most species belong to the genus Bufo. 

Amphibians in this group usually spend most of their time on land mostly near water.  Toads usually live in cool, moist places.  Toads absorb moisture through their skin.  White fluid that comes out through the parotid glands, is very poisonous and causes intense burning if it comes in contact with your eyes or mouth.  The white fluid however does not cause warts as an old belief might say.  Toads eat and get around the exact same way as frogs do.  They eat insects and grubs.  They also move around by jumping.  All though they hop the same way that frogs do who ever heard of Leap-Toad.  Also like frogs, toads lay eggs in the water in strands of jelly.  Fertilization is external.  Eggs hatch into tadpoles.  A gilled, aquatic, larval toad that undergoes metamorphosis into the adult. 

There are about a dozen Bufo species in the United States.  In those species the common American toad, the Fowlers toad, of the East United States, and the red-spotted, of the Southwest.  Toads are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Amphibia, order Anura.