Madagascaran Toadlets: Scaphiophrynidae

The Madagascaran toadlets are small frogs that look like toads. Many come in shades of brown or green, as do many toads. One of the toadlets is called the green burrowing frog. It, for instance, is green with brown blotches on its back, head, and legs. The red rain frog, however, is a more brightly colored member of this family. This species, which is also known as the rainbow burrowing frog, is red, orange red, or pink on its back and the top of its head, but white or light yellow green on its sides, legs, lower face, and underside. It also has considerable black markings on its body, along with a few yellow or whitish blotches on the back and head. Many of the toadlets have detailed, darker brown patterns on their backs. From one side of the back to the other, the patterns are usually mirror images of each other. This type of mirror-image pattern is known as a symmetrical (sim-MET-rih-kul) pattern.

Most Madagascaran toadlets have small warts. In some species, like Mocquard's rain frog, the warts may be as little as grains of sand, if they are there at all. The red rain frog has no warts on its back. Madagascaran toadlets have short back legs, but both their front and back legs have rather long toes. Each of the back feet has a noticeable bump, or tubercle (TOO-ber-kul). Their toes are either unwebbed or barely webbed. A few species, like the red rain frog and green burrowing frog have large pads on the tips of their front toes. The undersides of the frogs may be light or dark-colored. Mocquard's rain frog is a species with a white underside. It does, however, have red or dark purple patches on the undersides of its upper legs. The red rain frog, on the other hand, has a dark underside that is usually a dark grayish purple.

The web-foot frog, also known as the narrow-headed frog, looks different from the other eight species of Madagascaran toadlets. This frog has a teardrop-shaped, pudgy-looking body with a snout that comes to a point. Its hind legs are rather long. It has very small eyes that only barely bulge from the sides of the head. The toes on the back feet are fully webbed.

Males and females look much alike, although the males in some species may have darker throats and be a bit smaller than females. Depending on the species, adults may be 0.8 to 2.4 inches (2 to 6 centimeters) long from the tip of the snout to the end of the rump. Red rain frogs can grow to 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) long as adults. Mocquard's rain frogs are a bit smaller, and the males are even smaller than the females. Female Mocquard's rain frogs grow to 1.1 to 1.3 inches (2.8 to 3.3 centimeters) long, while males only reach 0.8 to 1.1 inches (2 to 2.7 centimeters) long. Adult web-foot frogs reach to 0.8 to 1 inches (2 to 2.4 centimeters) long. In this species males are a bit larger than females.

This family contains about nine species. Some scientists count more, mostly by splitting one or more of these nine species into two, or count fewer by grouping two into one species. Although this volume lists the Madagascaran toadlets in their own separate family, some scientists believe they should be grouped with the family of narrow-mouthed frogs.