Noellert's Toad

Noellert's toad is endemic to the rainforests of south-western Sri Lanka and named after the German herpetologist and photographer Andreas Nöllert, who first noticed it was distinct. Males measure 50 to 62 mm from snout to vent and females 80 to 89 mm. The head has many ridges, the supratympanic ridge the widest, and is covered in smooth warts with dark spinules, as are the parotoid glands. The body and limbs have spiny warts. The back is reddish-ash or reddish-brown marbled with dark brown, with a dark patch from behind the eardrum onto the flanks and limbs (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is an uncommon terrestrial toad found in and around lowland moist forest at 61 to 460 m, and adults have been recorded in rubber plantations, tea estates and gardens, but only close to forest edge. It occurs in the Kanneliya, Gilimale-Eratne and Sinharaja forest reserves. Nationally Endangered (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).