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It's that time of year again. I can tell it's nearly summer when I have to ride really slowly on the track back past the reservoir at the end of my night rides, because it's absolutely covered in toads. I really don't want to squish them, and there's so many I have to slow right down to avoid frog-tyre messiness.
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What are they doing all over the road? Oh, right. Shagging.
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I don't even 😯
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Anyone else get their rides disrupted by an overload of rutting amphibians or is it just me?
All the frogspawn in our pond has turned into tadpoles now.
The forgsporn's just a distant memory.
No pictures of French maids. Is disappoint.
I expected more hair.
Those are Toads...
Hee hee...
All the (actual, real) frogspawn round the village seems to get polished off by the heron, but I think the toads know some secret sneaky spots further up on the hills because there are millions of the buggers once you get on the back lanes.
Those are Toads...
Yeah I know. Toads are just a sort of frog though so you can call them either.
Dude, they just want some privacy and you turn it into a porn shoot, for shame!!
Did notice a few last night over near Withens Clough resevior. That and a very brave field mouse. Made me crash playing chicken with me.
A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientific taxonomy, but is common in popular culture (folk taxonomy), in which toads are associated with drier skin and more terrestrial habitats than animals commonly called frogs.[1] In scientific taxonomy, toads are found in the families Bufonidae, Bombinatoridae, Discoglossidae, Pelobatidae, Rhinophrynidae, Scaphiopodidae, and Microhylidae.[2] There is no definitive collective noun for toads, and like most collective nouns, the listed proposals are fanciful; one example is a knot of toads;[3] others include a lump, nest, or knob of toads.[4]
Origins of the word frogsporn
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Yeah I know. Toads are just a sort of frog though so you can call them either.
No, they're not and no, you can't.
Common Toads are a member of the Bufo family where as Common Frogs are a member of the Rana Genus.
Toads are to Frogs, as Chimps are to us.
Toads are to Frogs, as Chimps are to us.
and your point is? Two STW forumites yesterday:
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Common Toads are a member of the Bufo family where as Common Frogs are a member of the Rana Genus.Toads are to Frogs, as Chimps are to us.
OK, right, I've had a look at some books and websites because I'm a pedantic git and I'm not having some bearded ex-comedian-turned-bird-worrier telling me I'm wrong.
Assuming you're talking about 'True Frogs' (Ranidae, a family not a genus) and 'True Toads' (Bufonidae), then it looks like you're right, but then you're being a bit simplistic and ignoring lots of other frog-type species. Bufonidae themselves are part of the Neobactrians or 'Higher Frogs', and both Ranidae, Bufonidae and all the other numerous groupings of frogs and toads are part of the [url= http://tolweb.org/Anura/16963 ]Anura[/url] order, which is the overall clade generally referred to as containing frogs and all their fossil relatives.
As far as I can see toads (true or otherwise) are a sort of frog, unless you only mean 'true frogs', but then that excludes lots of other sorts of frogs from the overall frog order, which isn't right either. So, really, toads are to frogs as chimps and humans are to primates.
If only this bloke posted on here;
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Yup nearly squished 6 of em, at it on a DH section, luckily I saw them before an amphibian splatter massacre, was close though 😯
Mintimperial, you right in saying that both Frogs and Toads are members of the Anura order.
However, Primates are an order too, which both Chimps and Humans are both members of (as well as lemurs, monkeys etc).
Hence, Toads are to Frogs, as Chimps are to us.
Just because to outwardly similar species are of the same order doesn't mean they are the same.
Just because to outwardly similar species are of the same order doesn't mean they are the same.
That's not what I'm saying at all.
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anura_(frog) ]Anura[/url] = all frogs.
Toads are part of Anura.
Therefore toads are a type of frog. But it's all just semantics, you could just as easily say that Anura = frogs and toads, whatever. On that reading neither of is is right or wrong.
[Edit: only on STW could I post pics of shagging toads and end up in a ****ing argument about cladistics, jesus.]
It's the way posts can turn like this that usually is a source of mild despair; yet this example pleases me. 🙂
Ahh, classics takes me right back to uni (geology) with discussions about lumpers and splitters.
What with that, the thought of frogsporn and 20 degree school holidays life seems kind of good, although for the life of me I cannot think why that conflagration should do so.
I spotted these two on a ride the other week:
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I'm not entirely sure that the female was still alive, but the male seemed happy enough, so I left him too it.
Hundreds in the lake at llandegla this evening.Going at it like....well frogs/toads.One poor bugger had over done it and gone belly up from the effort.....good laaaaaad.