Frogs of Australia

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Key guide to Victorian frogs

The Frogs of Victoria project is retained only for the great key guide. Work through a series of questions until, finally, your frog is identified.

Key guide

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Neobatrachus sudelli

Common Spadefoot Toad

Also: Painted Burrowing Frog, Sudell's Frog

+ 44 kb Common Spadefoot Toad (Neobatrachus sudelli)

Found throughout most of Victoria's dry regions, much of New South Wales, southern Queensland, and pockets of South Australia, this frog is a burrower and remains buried for much of the time, becoming active after rains.

Distribution and habitat

Distribution map for Neobatrachus sudelli

Adults are most often found in dry habitats, including woodlands, shrubland, mallee, open, and disturbed areas. Within these habitats they may be found wandering on moist nights, far from the nearest permanent water. Eggs and tadpoles are aquatic. The eggs are spawned in ponds, dams, ditches, and flooded claypans.

There is a detailed distribution map available for: Victoria.

Calling

Males call whilst floating in open water. The call is very similar to that of Neobatrachus pictus but is a shorter and more slowly pulsed musical trill - "craa-aw-aw-aw-aw-aw-aw-awk".

Life cycle

Distinguishing characteristics

Common Spadefoot Toad (Neobatrachus sudelli) Copyright Wildlife Profiles. Photograph by Peter Robertson.

+ 58 kb Common Spadefoot Toad (Neobatrachus sudelli)

Adult length: 35-40mm.
Eggs are pigmented and are contained within long jelly strings, wrapped around submerged vegetation when present. Tadpoles are silvery grey, the fins are clear and sometimes have dark flecks. Adults have a vertical pupil and distinct black metatarsal tubercle. The back in reproductively active individuals is either smooth or covered in low rounded warts. The skin in the groin is loose and extends from the side of the body to the knees like "baggy pants".

Visible features

Presented here is the information stored in the frogs.org.au database which is used to identify frogs based on their appearance. It is intended to be used in a key guide for separating species so some of the information (for example, back colours) may be rather non-specific. The system is currently being developed - if you notice errors in the data, please write to Dave Black at the address at the bottom of the page.

Important note: This information details only the appearance of the frog. If an "or" appears in the description, this may mean either that there is some variation within the species or that the feature might be observed differently by different people. For example, if a frog has very small toe pads, it may be listed as having "Toe pads: present or absent".

Size

Up to between 30mm and 60mm

Eyes, hands, and feet

Pupils: vertical

Toe pads: absent

Webbing on feet: half-webbing or full-webbing

Belly

Texture: smooth

Pattern: plain

Colour: single colour

Back

Texture: smooth or rough

Pattern: spotted or mixed / marbled

Colour: multi-coloured

Glands and tubercles

Parotoid gland: absent

Tibial gland: absent

Metatarsal tubercles: keratinised glands present (black / brown)

Similar species (note: this version was written for Victorian species).

Distinguished from the burrowing members of the genus Limnodynastes by having a vertical pupil and by the absence of tibial glands. It can be distinguished from Heleioporus australiacus by the presence of a distinctly black metatarsal tubercle. It can be distinguished from Neobatrachus pictus by its "baggy pants" and by the nature of the warts on the back of reproductively active individuals - low and smoothly rounded in N. sudelli, raised and horny-capped in N. pictus.