Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider, 1799) melanostictus

The native range of the Asian stretches from northern Pakistan through Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, southern China, , Laos, Viet Nam, , Cambodia to Malaysia, Singapore and parts of Indonesia. It has been introduced to Maluka, Papua and Sulawesi (1), reported in Timor Leste (2) and Madagascar (3). The Asian toad is a nocturnal terrestrial species found from sea-level to 2000 m in temperate, tropical and sub-tropical habitats. Breeding occurs in still ponds and water bodies and slow moving rivers. They are also known to breed close to the sea with tadpoles able to tolerate up-to 1% salinity (2). Photo credit: Lokionly via Wikipedia Commons Asian common toads secrete a milky toxin and can cause itching; toad consumption is known to cause serious illness and sometimes death (2). The Asian common toad has been intercepted at Australian borders. marina There are concerns that it has the capacity to spread rapidly and could eradication has not been undertaken on a landscape scale, a feasibility study (3) undertaken for a possible eradication have impacts similar to the . This species has recommends that “development of eradication methods proceed in been intercepted at Australian borders. A Pest risk assessment a two-stage process thus evaluating the viability of methodologies undertaken in Australia found that its introduction poses a high before advancing to employing those practices at the landscape ecological risk to large parts of Australia with suitable climate. There scale” (3) biporcatus are reports that it competes with and displaces the endemic References in Indonesia (4). (1)Djoko Iskandar, Mumpuni. 2004. Ingerophrynus biporcatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004 In Madagascar the Asian common toad is currently known to occur in an area of around 98 sq kms. There are fears that it could have severe (2)McClelland P., J .T. Reardon, F. Kraus, C.J. Raxworthy and C. Randrianantoandro. Asian Toad Eradication Feasibility Report for Madagascar. 2015. Te Anau, New ecological impacts on prey species. While amphibian Zealand. 7

(3)Peter Paul van Dijk, Djoko Iskandar, Michael Wai Neng Lau, Gu Huiqing, Geng Baorong, Lue Kuangyang, Chou Wenhao, Yuan Zhigang, Bosco Chan, Sushil Dutta, Robert Inger, Kelum Manamendra-Arachchi, Muhammad Sharif Khan. 2004. Duttaphrynus melanostictus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

(4)The State of Queensland, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Click here to view archives of previous weeks’ species Innovation, 2010. Pest Risk Assessment Asian Spiny Toad mealnosictus