Couch's Spadefoot Toad (Scaphiopus couchii) is a species of North American spadefoot toad. The epithet couchii is in honor of American naturalist Darius Nash Couch. Couch's spadefoot is a 3 inch (8 cm), smooth-skinned, greenish, yellowish, or olive spadefoot with irregular blotches or spots of black, brown, or dark green. The belly is white and without markings. At the base of each hind foot is a dark, sickle-shaped keratinous "spade," hence the name spadefoot. The width of the eyelids is approximately the same as the distance between the eyes. The pupils are vertical.
Ten Facts about Couch's Spadefoot
- Length can be measures 5.5 - 9 cm (2.25 - 3.5 inches).
- Couch's Spadefoot Toad is native to the southwestern United States, northern Mexico, and the Baja peninsula. They can be found throughout the Sonoran Desert, which includes parts of southern Arizona and California.
- Water is a necessary medium for the fertilization of spadefoot eggs, and once the eggs hatch, water also provides a place for tadpoles to mature to the adult stage.
- Mating occurs in Spring & summer season.
- When they find water, the males produce a mating call that attracts female toads.
- During reproduction, the male mounts the female and releases sperm to fertilize the eggs, which are deposited in the pools of water in the form of a floating mass.
- Spadefoot toads take longer to mature (at least three weeks).
- They eat a variety of insects.
- A spadefoot can consume enough food in one meal to last an entire year.
- One female may lay as many as 3000 eggs.
