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Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects is a series of books produced by the Royal Entomological Society (RES). The aim of the Handbooks is to provide illustrated identification keys to the insects of Britain, together with concise morphological, biological and distributional information.
The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad (Bufo bufo, from Latin bufo "toad"), is a toad found throughout most of Europe (with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, parts of Scandinavia, and some Mediterranean islands), in the western part of North Asia, and in a small portion of Northwest Africa.
The natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita) is a toad native to sandy and heathland areas of Europe and the United Kingdom. Adults are 60–70 mm (2.4–2.8 in) in length, and are distinguished from common toads by a yellow line down the middle of the back and parallel paratoid glands .
Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] In popular culture ( folk taxonomy ), toads are distinguished from frogs by their drier, rougher skin and association with more terrestrial habitats. [ 3 ]
The common midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans) is a species of midwife frog in the family Alytidae (formerly Discoglossidae). It is found in Belgium , France , Germany , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Portugal , Spain , Switzerland , and the United Kingdom (although, in the latter, only as an introduction ).
The Iranian earless toad (B. surdus) is a fairly small and plain-coloured species that has no visible tympanum [10]. Most Bufotes species, including all in mainland Europe, have upperparts that are pale to medium brownish, brownish-olive, greyish or cream and with a usually conspicuous pattern of irregularly shaped darker spots that are green or greenish-olive in colour.
The toad uses the end of its long, sticky tongue to pick up prey, including beetles, crickets, flies, caterpillars, centipedes, ants, and millipedes. Tadpoles feed on vegetable matter. They chew with tiny, horny teeth. Young toads eat smaller sizes of the same prey on which adults feed.
The European spadefoot toad grows up to 10 cm (3.9 in) in length and is often inconspicuously coloured. They have squat bodies with smooth skin and eyes with vertical pupils. They are predominantly fossorial (burrowing) frogs, which dig into sandy soils.