Kelaart's Dwarf Toad

Kelaart's toad is a fairly small toad endemic to south-west Sri Lanka, at 30 to 1,230 m, with a fragmented range. Females measure 36 to 50 mm from snout to vent and males 25 to 33 mm. The skin is smooth in some and spiny-warted in others, brown blotched with darker colour above and cream or white below, blotched with brown and sometimes flecked with red, and sometimes with blue flecks too. It is named after the Ceylonese-born physician Edward Frederick Kelaart (Wikipedia, general species account).

It typically lives in leaf litter near upland streams in humid forest, sometimes climbs into low trees, and has been seen on sandbanks, in rock crevices, rotting logs and tree holes. It is active by day and night. Males call from beside water, including mid-stream boulders, and females lay up to a thousand colourless eggs in a single strand, usually in a permanent pool. Nationally Vulnerable (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).