The Miyako toad (Bufo gargarizans miyakonis) is a subspecies of the Asiatic toad that is native to the Miyako Islands, in the Ryūkyū Islands of Japan.[1]
In 1927, Japanese zoologist Okada Yaichirō included Bufo bufo miyakonis (Schlegel) in a study of the country's "tailless batrachians"; however, no further details were provided, making this a nomen nudum.[2] The Miyako toad was first described, as Bufo bufo miyakonis, i.e., as a subspecies of the Common toad, by Okada in 1931, with Miyako-jima in the Ryūkyū Islands given as the type locality.[3] [4] In 1947, Inger, arguing that Okada did not sufficiently distinguish his new subspecies from the Asiatic toad of China, treated this name as a synonym of Bufo bufo gargarizans.[5] In 1980, et al., based on laboratory crosses, recommended the toad be treated as a subspecies of the Japanese common toad, as Bufo japonicus miyakonis.[6] In 1984, concluded the Miyako toad was a subspecies of the Asiatic toad, i.e., Bufo gargarizans miyakonis.[2] [4] In its native Japan, the toad's vernacular name is .[1] Though sometimes thought to have been introduced, a Late Pleistocene fossil bufonid has been identified from Miyako-jima.[1] [7] [8]
The Miyako toad is somewhat warty, but less so than the Japanese common toad.[9] It has a grey-brown to reddish-brown back with some paler spots and stripes, and a whitish belly with some black spots.[9] Males have a snout–vent length (SVL) of 61-, with a mean of, while females are a little larger, at 77-, mean of .[1] Its width is around 36% of its SVL, its hand and arm length, 44%, the length of its tibia, 35% in males and 33% in females, and its relatively flat parotoid gland, c. 17%.[1] Males have black nuptial pads.[1] There is no vocal sac.[1]
The Miyako toad is native to Miyako-jima and Irabu-jima in the Miyako Islands, where it lives among the grasses and fields of sugarcane, but has also been introduced to Okinawa Island as well as Kitadaitō-jima and Minamidaitō-jima in the Daitō Islands.[1] [10]
The Miyako toad's diet largely comprises small invertebrates such as ants, beetles, snails, and worms.[1] The breeding season runs from September to March.[1] Its mating call includes five distinct notes, lasting in total some 1.5 seconds.[1] Females lay some twelve to fourteen thousand eggs, some 1.7- in diameter.[1] The small dark tadpoles reach a length of around ; the SVL on metamorphosis, which occurs after March, is .[1] [9]
The Miyako toad is classed as Near Threatened on the Ministry of the Environment Red List.[11]
fr:Masafumi Matsui
. 1984 . Contributions from the Biological Laboratory, Kyoto University . 0452-9987 . 26 . 3–4 . 209–428 . 2433/156031.ja:長谷川善和
. ja:ピンザアブ：ピンザアブ洞穴発掘調査報告 . Pinza-Abu: Reports on Excavation of the Pinza-Abu Cave . ja . Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education . Naha . 1985 . 151–159.