Bufo perplexus Taylor, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 29:347, October 15, 1943.—Balsas River near Mexcala, Guerrero, México.
Aguililla (2); Apatzingán (42); Buena Vista (5); Capirio (3); La Playa (25); Lombardia (6); Nueva Italia (9); Río Cancita, 14 km. E of Apatzingán; Río Tepalcatepec, 27 km. S of Apatzingán; San Salvador (4); Tzitzio; Volcán Jorullo.
Bufo occidentalis Camerano
Bufo occidentalis Camerano, Atti R. Accad. Sci. Torino, 14:887, December 31, 1878.—México. Type locality restricted to Guanajuato, Guanajuato, México, by Smith and Taylor (1950a:330). Firschein, Copeia, no. 3:220, September 15, 1950.
Bufo símus, Smith and Taylor, Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus., 194:42, 1948.
Barranca Seca (32); Cerro de Barolosa (4); Cerro Tancítaro, 3 km. E of Apo (2); Cerro Tancítaro, 19 km. E. of Apo (10); Charapendo; Coalcomán (7); Dos Aguas (4); Jacona, Jaramillo (2); Las Tecatas; Los Reyes (181); Tancítaro (10); Uruapan (3).
This toad is an inhabitant of pine and oak forests between 900 and 2400 meters. Near Charapendo on the slopes of the Sierra de los Tarascos and at Coalcomán it apparently reaches its lowest altitudinal limits. At both of these localities the pine-oak forest is replaced by arid tropical scrub forest on the lower slopes.
Twenty-four tadpoles were collected on May 3 in a quiet section of a fast stream near Barranca Seca. The tadpoles have a robust body, broadest about two-thirds the distance from the snout to the posterior edge of the body, half again as broad as deep. Eyes dorsolateral; nostrils dorsal, somewhat directed forward, and about three-fifths the distance from the tip of the snout to the eye; spiracle sinistral and lateral, located at about midbody; anus median; tail long and slender; tail-musculature extends nearly to tip of tail; depth of tail-musculature at mid-length about one-third total depth of tail; dorsal tail-fin not extending onto body (Fig. 5); average body length of ten tadpoles having small hind limb buds, 14.4 mm.; average tail length, 22.0 mm.
Mouth ventral, nearly terminal, about one-third as wide as widest part of body; anterior lip has no papillae; lower lip bordered by two rows of papillae and lateral lips by one row of papillae; beaks moderately well developed, the upper forming a broad arch and finely denticulate; tooth rows 2/3, the upper rows extending to the edge of the lips, subequal in length, and slightly longer than lower rows, which also are subequal in length; inner upper tooth row broken medially; inner lower tooth row sometimes broken (Fig. 6).
The body is black dorsally and laterally, and bluish gray ventrally; the tail musculature is brown and stippled with darker brown. The fins are transparent and stippled with brown, the stippling being most pronounced on the posterior two-thirds of the upper tail-fin.