THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Bufonidae  

Chihuahuan Green Toad
Anaxyrus debilis (Girard, 1854)

Current SSAR Comments:
Fouquette and Dubois (2014, A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles: The United States and Canada. Xlibris Corporation: 301) rejected subspecies but presented no evidence for this conclusion, even though we agree that the nominal subspecies are unlikely to be anything other than arbitrarily defined sections of a cline.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.09.03.08.09.35)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.71 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona Colorado Kansas New Mexico Oklahoma Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Sonora Toad (Bufo debilis: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Little Green Toad (: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1915. Reptiles and amphibians of Texas. Baylor University Bulletin 18(4):29952); Little Green Toad (Bufo debilis: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Sonoran Toad (Bufo debilis: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Green Toad (Bufo debilis: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Little Green Toad (Bufo debilis: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Sonora Toad (Bufo debilis: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Dwarf Toad (Bufo debilis: Smith, Hobart M. 1934. The Amphibians of Kansas. American Midland Naturalist 15(4):377-527); Northern Little Green Toad (Bufo insidior: Bragg, Arthur N. and Charles Clinton Smith. 1943. Observations on the ecology and natural history of anura IV: The ecological distribution of toads in Oklahoma. Ecology 24(3):285-309); Green Toad (Bufo debilis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Little Green Toad (Bufo debilis debilis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Western Green Toad (Bufo debilis insidior: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Eastern Green Toad (Bufo debilis debilis: Conant, Roger. 1975. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston. pp.); Chihuahuan Green Toad (Anaxyrus debilis: Frost, Darrel R., Roy W. McDiarmid, Joseph R. Mendelson III, and David M. Green. 2012. Anura - Frogs. Pages 11-22 in Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Herpetological Circular No. 39. pp.); Eastern Chihuahuan Green Toad (Anaxyrus debilis debilis: Frost, Darrel R., Roy W. McDiarmid, Joseph R. Mendelson III, and David M. Green. 2012. Anura - Frogs. Pages 11-22 in Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Herpetological Circular No. 39. pp.); Western Chihuahuan Green Toad (Anaxyrus debilis insidior: Frost, Darrel R., Roy W. McDiarmid, Joseph R. Mendelson III, and David M. Green. 2012. Anura - Frogs. Pages 11-22 in Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Herpetological Circular No. 39. pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1854 Girard, Charles. A list of the North American Bufonids, with diagnoses of new species. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 7():86-88
1951 Sanders, Ottys and Hobart M. Smith. Geographic variation in toads of the debilis group of Bufo. Field and Laboratory 19(4):141-160
1954 Savage, Jay M. A revision of the toads of the Bufo debilis complex. Texas Journal of Science 6(1):83-112
1954 Lowe, Charles H., Jr. Isolating mechanisms in sympatric populations of southwestern anurans. Texas Journal of Science 6(3):265-270
1955 Bragg, Arthur N. The tadpole of Bufo debilis debilis. Herpetologica 11(3):211-212
1962 Bogert, Charles M. Isolation mechanisms in toads of the Bufo debilis group in Arizona and Western Mexico. American Museum Novitates (2100):1-37
1965 Ferguson, J. Homer. Evolutionary relationships of the toads of the Bufo punctatus group. Dissertation. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.. 96pp.
1969 Ferguson, J. Homer and Charles H. Lowe. Evolutionary relationships in the Bufo punctatus group. American Midland Naturalist 81(2):435-466
1970 Zweifel, Richard G. Descriptive notes on larvae of toads of the debilis group, genus Bufo. American Museum Novitates (2407):1-13
1979 Rundquist, Eric M. The status of Bufo debilis and Opheodrys vernalis in Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 82(1):67-70
1984 Sullivan, Brian K. Advertisement call variation and observations on breeding behavior of Bufo debilis and B. punctatus. Journal of Herpetology 18(4):406-411
1994 Taggart, Travis W. The natural history and distribution of the Green Toad (Bufo debilis) in Kansas, with a report on an effort to reintroduce the species into the Cimarron National Grasslands. Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Pratt. 12pp.
1995 Blair, Kathleen B., Flavius C. Killebrew, Hobart M. Smith, and David Chiszar. Bufo debilis. Herpetological Review 26(3):151
1997 Taggart, Travis W. Status of Bufo debilis (Anura: Bufonidae) in Kansas Kansas Herpetological Society Newsletter (109):7-12
2000 Sullivan, Brian K., Keith B. Malmos, Erik W. A. Gergus, and Robert W. Bowker. Evolutionary implications of advertisement call variation in Bufo debilis, B. punctatus, and B. retiformis. Journal of Herpetology 34(3):368-374
2004 Pauly, Gregory B., David M. Hillis, and David C. Cannatella. The history of a Nearctic colonization: Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Nearctic toads (Bufo). Evolution 58():2517-2535
2005 Lannoo, Michael (Editor) Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University fo California Press, Berkeley. 1115pp.
2005 Enderson, Erik F. and Robert L. Bezy. Amphibians of the Vekol Valley. Sonoran Herpetologist 18(7):74-79
2008 Pauly, Gregory B. Phylogenetic systematics, historical biogeography, and the evolution of vocalizations in Nearctic toads (Bufo). Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. 165pp.
2011 Enderson, Erik F. and Robert L. Bezy. Herpetofauna of the 100-mile circle: Green Toad, Anaxyrus debilis (Girard 1854). Sonoran Herpetologist 24(9):82-85
2013 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 982pp.
2014 Fouquette, Martin J., Jr. and Alain DuBois. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles: The United States and Canada. Xlibris, Bloomington, Indiana. 614pp.
2016 Peralta-Garcia, Anny, Dean H. Leavitt, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, and Tod W. Reeder. The phylogenetic position of the Little Mexican Toad, Anaxyrus kelloggi, using molecular data. Journal of Herpetology 50(3):471-475
2019 Goldberg, Stephen R. Notes on reproduction of Green Toads, Anaxyrus debilis (Anura: Bufonidae), from New Mexico. Sonoran Herpetologist 32(1):2019
2023 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. Second Edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1032pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 24 March 2025 20:46 CT