Wet Forest Toad

About the Wet Forest Toad

Incilius melanochlorus, formerly Bufo melanochlorus, is a mid-sized species of toad with a crested head in the family Bufonidae. It is primarily distinguished by its very long first finger with respect to the other fingers. It is found in southern Nicaragua, in the northern Cordillera Central (central highlands) and on the Atlantic slopes of eastern Costa Rica, and in western Panama.

Frank and Ramus (1995) give it the common name dark green toad, Panamanian herpetologists Jaramillo and Ibáñez (2009) use wet forest toad or west forest toad according to Darrel R. Frost (likely a misspelling). A local Spanish name from Costa Rica specifically for this species is sapo Costaricense de la selva, but it also just known as sapo.

The first article about this species was published in 1875 by Edward Drinker Cope who wrote of the toad as a particular but unnamed variety of Bufo valliceps from eastern Costa Rica. It was described as a novel species in its own right in 1877 by Cope under the name B. melanochlorus. The holotype is a specimen (undesignated in Cope's original publication, but thought to be USNM30592) taken in Limón Province sometime before 1877... Wikipedia →