Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas

A tadpole of Spea multiplicata. Image © Altig et al. (2006).
An adult from Cimmaron County, Oklahoma. © Travis W. Taggart.
AMPHIBIA (Amphibians) ANURA (Frogs) SCAPHIOPODIDAE (North American Spadefoots)

Mexican Spadefoot
Spea multiplicata (Cope 1863)
spē-ŭh — mŭl-tə-plə-cā-tŭh

Conservation Status:
State: None
Federal: None
NatureServe State: SNA - Not Applicable
NatureServe National: N5 - Secure
NatureServe Global: G5 - Secure
CITES: None
Diagnosis:
 Mexican Spadefoots grow to approximately 2.5 inches in SVL. They may be gray, brown, tan, or greenish with with dark spots or small blotches on their back and upper surfaces of their legs. Occasionally, faint light stripes occur on the back and sides. There are red-tipped tubercles scattered over the back, head, and upper surfaces of the legs. It has large eyes and a short spade-shaped tubercle on the bottom of each hind foot. Mexican Spadefoots can be differentiated from the Plains Spadefoot by the lack a bony boss (hard raised hump) between their eyes. It has been reported that Mexican Spadefoots smell like peanuts when handled, whereas Plains Spadefoots do not.
Tadpoles are light gray to olive or brownish-olive in color dorsally. The tadpole's head is broad and flat, and the eyes are situated toward the top. They typically metamorphose before reaching 1.5 inches. but some may reach 3 inches as tadpoles. Tadpoles that are carnivorous (generally feeding on fairy shrimp) develop large jaw muscles, an exceptionally broad head, and a short gut.
Distribution:
 This frog is known to occur just south of the Kansas border in Oklahoma, from the Salt Fork Arkansas River in Barber County west through Morton County. It has also been recorded from the Arkansas River Basin in Baca County, Colorado, 25 miles west of the Kansas border.
(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record) (,   iNat Record), (  Fossil)
Open icons are questionable records; Click on a marker to view details.
Full range depicted by light shaded red area. Export Google Earth (.kml)
  • Occurrence Summary:  
  • 0
    Records 
  • 0
    Museum Vouchers 
  • 0
    Other Observations 
Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
 County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):

Natural History:

Occurrence Activity:
 Number of Unique Obervations (=days): 0; Range: 01 Jan to 01 Jan
Chorusing:
Audio recording by Keith Coleman.

Chorusing Phenology: The black outlined dots denote the Julian date (day of the year; 1 January = 1 to 31 December = 365) an observation was made. The thin red line depicts the range of dates between the beginning of the first, and end of the fourth quartile (excluding outliers; Tukey method). The thick light blue bar represents the second and third quartile (interquartile range; the middle 50% of all observations). Only one observation per Julian date is included in the graphs; so a date with multiple observations carries the same weight as a date with only one observation. The vertical bars correspond to the 12 months of the year; January through December.
Number of Unique Obervations: ; Range: ; Interquartile range: ;

Remarks:
 This amphibian is found along the Kansas border in northwestern Oklahoma from Cimarron County in the west to Grant County in the northcentral part of the state. Collins and Collins (1991) did not report it from Morton County in extreme southwestern Kansas. Nonetheless, because of its close proximity to Kansas, the New Mexico Spadefoot may be discovered along the southwestern border of the state, from Barber County west to Morton County.
Bibliography:
1932 Kellogg, Remington. Mexican tailless amphibians in the United States National Museum . Bulletin of the United States National Museum (160):1-224
List Kansas (erroneously) as within the range of Spea multiplicata. Records Anaxyrus cognatus from Gove, Morton, Trego, and Wallace counties. Discredits a record of Anaxyrus speciosus from southwest Kansas. Lists Anaxyrus debilis from Grant and Morton counties. Reports Anaxyrus woodhousii from Doniphan County in northeastern Kansas and later on from "... the chalk cliffs of western Kansas".
1950 Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of Kansas. University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, Miscellaneous Publication (2):336
The first modern herpetology of Kansas. Includes locality dot maps within individual species accounts. Reports 96 species from Kansas (table and text say 97 on p. 10) and 13 "probable but unverified" species and subspecies.
1956 Chrapliwy, Pete S. Taxonomy and distribution of the spadefoot toads of North America (Salientia: Pelobatidae). Thesis. University of Kansas, Lawrence. 131pp.
1956 Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of Kansas. Second edition. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publication (9):1-356
Hobart M. Smith's updated second edition of his first (1950) modern herpetology of Kansas. Includes locality dot maps within individual species accounts. Reports 96 species from Kansas (table says 97 on p. 10; text says 98 on p. 10) and 11 "probable but unverified" species and subspecies. The second edition has updated taxonomy, added Plestiodon laticeps, and removed Eurycea tynerensis.
1974 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Public Education Series (1):283 pp
Joseph T. Collins first Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Smith 1956)>
1974 Karns, Daryl, Ray E. Ashton, Jr., and Thomas Swearingen. Illustrated Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas: An Identification Manual. University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Public Education Series(2):viii + 18
1976 Brown, Herbert A. The status of California and Arizona populations of the western spadefoot toads (genus Scaphiopus). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Contributions in Science (286):1-14
Includes a range map of Spea bombifrons and Spea hammondii (Spea multiplicata now) in, or near, Kansas.
1982 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas. 2nd edition. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Public Education Series (8):
Joseph T. Collins second Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1974)>
1984 Secor, Stephen M. and Charles C. Carpenter. Distribution maps of Oklahoma reptiles. Oklahoma Herpetological Society Special Publication (3):1-57
1985 Sattler, P. W. Introgressive hybridization between the spadefoot toads Scaphiopus bombifrons and S. multiplicatus (Salientia: Pelobatidae). Copeia 1985():324-332
1991 Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1991 Wiens, John J. and Tom A. Titus. A phylogenetic analysis of Spea (Anura: Pelobatidae). Herpetologica 47(1):21-28
1993 Collins, Joseph T. and Suzanne L. Collins. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas. Third Edition. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Lawrence. 397pp.
Joseph T. Collins third Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1982)>
1997 Rundquist, Eric M. Results of the ninth annual KHS herp counts held 1 April-31 May 1997. Kansas Herpetological Society Newsletter (108):12-17
1998 Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd ed, expanded. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1998 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians & Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 131pp.
2006 Altig, Ronald, Roy W. McDiarmid, Kimberly A. Nichols, and Paul C. Ustach. Tadpoles of the United States and Canada: A Tutorial and Key Electronic files accessible at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/tadpole/. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, USA. ():
2006 Taggart, Travis W. Distribution and status of Kansas herpetofauna in need of information. State Wildlife Grant T7. Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Pratt. vii + 106pp.
2010 Collins, Joseph T., Suzanne L. Collins, and Travis W. Taggart. Amphibians, Reptiles, and Turtles of Kansas Eagle Mountain Publishing., Provo, Utah. 400pp.
Joseph T. Collins fourth Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1993)>
2012 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada: Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 152pp.
2016 Powell, Robert, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. 494pp.
2017 Crother, Brian I. (editor) Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. Eighth edition. Herpetological Circulars (43):1-102
2019 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada. Third Edition. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 192pp.
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Travis W. Taggart © 1999-2025 — w/ Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University