Midwife Toad
Midwife toads (Alytes) are a genus of frogs in the Discoglossidae family, and are found in most of Europe and northwestern Africa.
Food and Feeding
The midwife toad crawls around the area close to its hiding place at night to search for food. The toad uses the end of its long, sticky tongue to pick up prey, which includes beetles, crickets, flies, caterpillars, centipedes, and millipedes. Tadpoles feed on vegetable matter. They chew with tiny, hornyteeth. Young toads eat smaller sizes of the same prey that adults feed on.
Description
Five separate species of midwife toad are found across western Europe, northern Africa, and Majorca. Shy, nocturnal animals, they give away their presence by their ringing call. During the day, the midwife toad hides under stones and logs or in underground tunnels. It often hides in dry, sandy soil, which it finds easier to dig into using its forelegs and snout. It emerges at dusk to forage for food, but always returns to the same hiding places before dawn. During the winter, the common midwife toad hibernates in its hole or in a burrow that has been deserted by a small animal.
Breeding
the males carry a string of fertilised eggs on their back, hence the name "midwife". The female expels a strand of eggs, which the male fertilizes externally. He then wraps them around his legs to protect them from predators in the water. When they are ready to hatch, the male wades into shallow water, where he allows the tadpoles to leap out of their eggs.
Defenses
The back of the midwife toad is covered with small warts. These warts give off a strong smelling poison when the toad is handled or attacked. The poison is so powerful that the toad has few enemies or predators. The poison also helps to keep the egg strings on the male's back safe from attack. The tadpole does not possess the poison, and therefore falls prey to fish and insects.
