Pelobates cultripes (Iberian spadefoot toad). Maximum body size

Abstract

The Iberian spadefoot toad, Pelobates cultripes, occurs in southern France and throughout most of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) (Lizana et al. 1994. J. Herpetol. 28:19-27). De La Vega ( 1988. Anfibios y reptiles de la provincia de Huelva, Ertisa [Ed.]. Huelva, Spain. 238 pp.) reported maximum size for Pelobates cultripes as 89 mm SVL. Talavera (1990. Evolución de Pelobatidos y Peloditidos (Amphibia: Anura): morfología y desarrollo del sistema esquelético. Unpubl. Ph. D. Thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.) reported maximum size for Pelobates cultripes females from Madrid, Spain as 101 mm SVL. The record size reported for females of this species is 113 mm SVL (Salvador and García-París 2001. Anfibios españoles. Identificación, historia natural y distribución. Canseco [Ed.], Talavera de la Reina. 269 pp.). Herein, we report on a new maximum size for this species. On 21 October 2002, between 1900 and 2200 h, in a temporary ponds near Aznalcóllar (Seville Province, Spain, 37º31’N, 6º16’W; elev. 130 m) we captured three adult gravid females of P. cultripes that surpassed the previous record length (119 mm SVL, 124 g; 120 mm SVL, 145 g; and 125 mm SVL, 168 g). Each individual were measured in the field and carefully released after into the pond where they were captured. The terminal phalange of third digit of the right forefoot was removed for a skeletochronological study in order to determine successive resting lines, providing an estimate of the age of each individual (Hemelaar 1998. J. Herpetol. 22:369-388). The biggest female coughed was aged in five years old, in the remaining individuals was not possible age determination. A geographic variation in body size of Pelobates cultripes has been recently reported (Marangoni 2006. Variación clinal en el tamaño del cuerpo a escala microgeográfica en dos especies de anuros (Pelobates cultripes y Bufo calamita). Ph. D. Thesis. Univerdidad de Sevilla, Spain.). This suggests that differences in body size reported among the cited authors could have been determinate by differences in latitudinal variation in body size. We thank the Consejería de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucía and the Reserva Biológica de Doñana, for providing the corresponding permits and facilities.