Distribution:
These small frogs are found from extreme western Missouri and the eastern half of Kansas south through Texas and into Mexico. A large but separate population occurs from Arizona south into Baja California, Mexico. In Nebraska the Western Narrowmouth Toad is known from multiple localities in the extreme southern portions of Gage and Webster Counties, but they are probably more widespread than this.
(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record) (,   iNat Record), (  Fossil)
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Full range depicted by light shaded red area. Export Google Earth (.kml)

• Occurrence Summary:  
• 32
  Records 
• 32
  Museum Vouchers 
• 0
  Other Observations 

Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):
Gage (28); Jefferson (2); Thayer (1); Webster (1);

Natural History:
Moist grasslands with limestone rocky outcrop associations are the most significant habitat features of narrowmouth toads in Nebraska. Most encounters have been on rocky, sparsely-wooded hillsides where the frogs have been found taking refuge beneath rocks. They also use burrows excavated by mammals, arthropods, and other animals. Breeding season for the Western Narrowmouth Toad begins in late April when spring rains cue them to exit winter hibernacula. Temporary pools and shallow areas of permanent ponds are used, and the male advertisement call sounds like a high-pitched lamb bleat. It is similar to that of Woodhouse’s Toad, except that the narrowmouth toad call is preceeded by a short peep followed by the nasal, lamb-like waaaaaaahhh. The Western Narrowmouth Toad is a dietary specialist feeding almost exclusively on ants. In the southern and western portions of its range in the U.S., it is closely associated with tarantulas and appears to have a commensal if not mutualistic relationship with them. It gains protection from the spider while feeding on ants that invade the tarantula’s burrows. Narrowmouth toads have a relatively toxic skin attributable to their diet of ants that makes them distasteful. It is probably why the tarantulas do not eat them.

Occurrence Activity:

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.
# Unique Obervations: ; Range: ; Interquartile range: ;

Remarks: