Craugastor augustiBarking Frog

Geographic Range

Central Texas to southeast New Mexico and south to Tehuantepec, Mexico (Behler 1979).

Habitat

They are found along limestone edges of cliffs. Also found in caves, under stones, rock walls of canyons, rock masses in mountains, and rocky hillsides. (Wright 1949).

Physical Description

Adults are 2 3/5 - 3 inches, (64.5 - 75.0 mm) in length (Wright 1949). They have a toad-shaped body with a large head and small truncated toe pads. They are greenish to tan, smooth skinned, with scattered dark spots. They also have dorsolateral skin folds on the back and one fold across the back of the head. They possess a disk-shaped fold on their belly (Behler 1979). The young are often greenish with a fawn-colored band across the middle of their back (Conant 1998).

Development

Reproduction

Breeding is from February to May, during rainy periods.They lay their eggs under rocks and logs in moist soils.The tadpole stages occur within the eggs and they hatch as fully developed miniature frogs (Behler 1979).

  • Key Reproductive Features
  • gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)

Behavior

Their call at a distance sounds like a dog's bark, but close up sounds more like a throaty whurr (Wright 1949). They are nocturnal. They walk with their body high off the ground. They can inflate to several times their normal body size when threatened (Behler 1979).

Food Habits

No information found.

Conservation Status

Contributors

Jennifer Niederlander (author), Michigan State University, James Harding (editor), Michigan State University.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chaparral

Found in coastal areas between 30 and 40 degrees latitude, in areas with a Mediterranean climate. Vegetation is dominated by stands of dense, spiny shrubs with tough (hard or waxy) evergreen leaves. May be maintained by periodic fire. In South America it includes the scrub ecotone between forest and paramo.

ectothermic

animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature

metamorphosis

A large change in the shape or structure of an animal that happens as the animal grows. In insects, "incomplete metamorphosis" is when young animals are similar to adults and change gradually into the adult form, and "complete metamorphosis" is when there is a profound change between larval and adult forms. Butterflies have complete metamorphosis, grasshoppers have incomplete metamorphosis.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

References

Behler, J., F. King. 1979. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Conant, R., J. Collins. 1998. A field guide to Reptiles and Amphibians: eastern and central North America. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Wright, A., A. Wright. 1949. Handbook of Frogs and Toads of United States and Canada. New York: