The marine toad, Bufo marinus : a natural history resumé of native populations

Abstract

SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ZOOLOGY • NUMBER 284 SERIES PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Emphasis upon publication as a means of "diffusing knowledge" was expressed by the first Secretary of the Smithsonian. In his formal plan for the Institution, Joseph Henry outlined a program that included the following statement: "It is proposed to publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science, and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge." This theme of basic research has been adhered to through the years by thousands of titles issued in series publications under the Smithsonian imprint, commencing with Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing with the following active series: Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics Smithsonian Contributions to Botany Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology In these series, the Institution publishes small papers and full-scale monographs that report the research and collections of its various museums and bureaux or of professional colleagues in the world of science and scholarship. The publications are distributed by mailing lists to libraries, universities, and similar institutions throughout the world. Papers or monographs submitted for series publication are received by the Smithsonian Institution Press, subject to its own review for format and style, only through departments of the various Smithsonian museums or bureaux, where the manuscripts are given substantive review. Press requirements for manuscript and art preparation are outlined on the inside back cover.

Phylogeography of Bufo marinus from its natural and introduced ranges

“…The correspondence between the location of the phylogeographic break and this obvious physical feature, together with the (crude) correspondence between the minimum age of the split and timing of the ¢nal uplift of the eastern cordillera, suggest that the eastern Andes have isolated populations to the east and west. Zug & Zug (1979) comment that B. marinus occupies a wide range of habitats, but is rare in unbroken forest and at altitudes about 1000 m. A survey of available museum records (¢gure 1 in Zug & Zug 1979) did not reveal any samples from the eastern cordillera, although it is conceivable that the toads occur around the relatively xeric coastal fringe and in lower lying areas within this topographically complex region (see ¢gure 15:11 in Duellman 1979). The results of the present study indicate a need for more detailed surveys to determine the distribution of the two genetic types of marinus across the Andean range in Venezuela.…”

“…First, its natural geographic range is unusually broad for a neotropical amphibian, extending from south-east Texas (USA) to south-eastern Peru and central Amazonia (Zug & Zug 1979;¢gure 1a). Second, the species was introduced to islands across the Caribbean and Paci¢c Oceans in order to control cane pests, but is now itself perceived as a major pest that potentially threatens native wildlife (Covacevich & Archer 1975;Freeland 1987).…”

Morphological characterization of Eustrongylides sp. larvae (Nematoda, Dioctophymatoidea) parasite of Rhinella marina (Amphibia: Bufonidae) from Eastern Amazonia

“…Then, as crocodiles, alligators, crows, white-faced herons, kites, eagles, bush stone-curlews, tawny frogmouths, water rats, giant white-tailed rats and snakes are natural predators of Rhinella marina (ZUG & ZUG, 1979;BRANDT & MAZZOTTI, 2009), we present here for the first time, the marine toad as a intermediate/ paratenic host in the biological cycle of Eustrongylides. This is the first report of these nematodes in Bufonidae from Marajó Archipelago, eastern Amazonia and adds another species to the known helminth parasites of R. marina in Brazil and in the Neotropical Region.…”

Seasonal Foraging Specialization in the Worm-Eating Warbler

“…I then converted arthropod numbers to crude live biomass based on lengthweight regressions for forest arthropods (Zug and Zug 1979) and compared these estimates between live and dead leaf samples.…”