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Wildlife New Mexico Spadefoot Page
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 Photo by: Dr. Geoffery Hammerson |
New Mexico Spadefoot
Spea multiplicata
Habitat: This toad lives in plains grassland in southeastern Colorado. It occurs in sagebrush and semidesert shrubland in basins and floodplains of streams in western Colorado.
Food and Predators: In Texas, the diet includes beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, termites, spiders, and other invertebrates as available (Punzo 1991).
Mackessy (1998) reported an instance of predation on this toad by the plains garter snake in Las Animas County.
Recognition: Pupil vertically elongate in bright light; a single hard, wedge-shaped spade on each hind foot; no lump between eyes; upper surface gray or brown with numerous scattered dark spots (no stripes); frontoparietal bones flat, separated by extensive fontanelle (dissection required). Mature male: dark throat and dark patches on the three inner digits of forelimbs during breeding season; expanded vocal sac slightly bilobed; breeding call a stuttering croak about one second long (duration decreases with increasing temperature). Larvae: dorsum pale brown to gray; eyes dorsal; lower mandible not striated; carnivore morph has a broadened head due to hypertrophied jaw muscles, a cusped upper mandible, and relatively short intestine of only a few coils (Pfennig 1992b).
Distribution: Southeastern Utah, southern Colorado, and southwestern Kansas south through Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas to central Mexico. Occurs north to the Arkansas River valley in southeastern Colorado at elevations generally below 6,000 feet (1,830 m) and south of the Uncompahgre Plateau at elevations below 6,500 feet (1,980 m) in southwestern Colorado.
Status: This species is not listed.
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Species Occurrence Tool
(*) NDIS has no county occurrence data for fish at this time.
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