Common Spadefoot
Pelobates fuscus
Identification 2
Eyes are yellow color with vertical to round pupils. Pupils of the species can be very variable, they never form a horizontal slit as in toads, which the spadefoot is most somonly misindetified as by unexperienced students.
Body is round as a toads but with pointing down nose, they have somewhat visible spots and they don't have warty skin. On their hid legs a spade can be found.
Larvae notoriously big and black tadpoles.
Egg clutches of this species are small miniscule dots in a translucent sack about 12mm wide, attached to water vegetation. They are easy to miss due to their small size, but unmistakenable when found.
Ecology & Behaviour 2
Spadefoots live in lowlands and are by my standards the rarest find out of all our frogs. They burrow down up to a meter deep into the soil to hide during the day and escape predators, the burrow often collapses on them, which is inconvenient to anyone trying to find them. They come out only at night and their call is a distinctive knocking sound. The knocking is often drowned out by other sounds however, making finding the thing almost imposible.
They prefer light soils sometimes with sand mixture. The species prefers open country and avoids forested places.
Identifikace (CZ) 2
Blatnice jsou často zaměnitelné s ropuchami, ale liší se především tvarem zornice, která není horizontálního charakteru (jako je tomu u ropuch), tvarem hlavy, která je uzpůsobená rozrývání půdy. Hlasem (Blatnice "ťukají"), snůškou a nakonec přítomností patního hrbolu, kterým se blatnice zahrabává pozadu do substrátu.
Fontes e Créditos
- (c) Jakob Fahr, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), enviado por Jakob Fahr
- (c) Martin Vohralík, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA)
