Kankunde toad, Dark-sided toad
Mertensophryne melanopleura (common names: Kankunde toad, dark-sided toad) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is known from its type locality, the Upemba National Park in southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and from eastern Angola and south of Ndola in northern Zambia.
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Jumping (saltation) can be distinguished from running, galloping, and other gaits where the entire body is temporarily airborne by the relatively l...
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starts withAdult males measure 18–21 mm (0.7–0.8 in) and adult females 20–25 mm (0.8–1.0 in) in snout–vent length. The overall appearance is moderately slender. The snout is truncate. Neither tympanum nor cranial crests are present. The parotoid gland is elongate but feebly distinct. The legs are short. The finger and the toe tips are bluntly rounded. The toes have basal webbing whereas the fingers are unwebbed. Dorsal skin and the sides of the head have dense cover of flattened, round warts. The lower parts are coarsely granular. Preserved specimens are brown above, or light brown market with pairs of dark-brown bars. The flanks are blackish brown. The venter is whitish or cream, with dark mark that varies in extent a narrow median stripe to covering nearly half of the ventral surfaces. Adult males have nuptial pads but no vocal sac.
The eggs are relatively large (1.8–2 mm (0.071–0.079 in) in diameter) but few in number (31 and 35 in two females).
