General Description: Red-spotted Toads (Anaxyrus punctatus) are small toads with red spots on the warts. No yellow stripe down the back. During breeding season, the call is a high-pitched trill. Other species of toads sometimes have red spots, but note the small, round parotid glands (unique in our area).

Taxonomy: Order Frogs and Toads (Anura); Family True Toads (Bufonidae). Formerly Red-spotted Toad (Bufo punctatus).

Technical Description: Body size small (2 in; max 3 in.) and flat. Dorsal color grayish-brown with reddish warts. Ventral surface whitish to buff; unmarked. Parotid glands round; parietal ridges small or absent.

Diet: Insects.

Habitat: Deserts, rocky areas, and agricultural areas, usually near natural or man-made sources of permanent water.

Range: Southwestern U.S. from California to Texas, and from Utah and Kansas south into central Mexico. This species occurs throughout Clark County in the appropriate habitat.

Breeding: Breeds from April to September after rains. This is the only North American toad that lays eggs one at a time on the bottom of pools. Active at twilight. Amplexis pectoral.

Similar Species: Other species of toads in southern Nevada have prominent cranial crests or oval parotid glands.

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