Common Midwife Toad
Alytes obstetricans
This frog carries eggs wrapped around the male’s hind legs.[3]
Size and lifespan
- Body length
- adult maximum in a source 5.5 cm[2]
Appearance
It reaches about 5.5 cm in length. It has a stocky body, a large head and prominent eyes; its skin is mostly smooth with small warts.[5]
Life
The male carries the eggs on land wrapped around his hind legs, then releases the tadpoles near water.[3]
In a captive trial, three normal tadpoles hatched 16–17 days after artificial fertilization.[3]
Places
Native range · Western and central Europe[4]
Its range runs from northern Spain and Portugal through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.
Sources
- Catalogue of Life 2026-09-25 XR
Catalogue of Life · 2026-10-13
- AmphiBIO v1: maximum adult body size (Oliveira et al., 2017)
Oliveira, Sao-Pedro, Santos-Barrera, Penone and Costa / Figshare · 2026-10-26
- Gamete Collection, Artificial Fertilization and Captive-Rearing of Eggs in a Terrestrial-Breeding Anuran with Parental Care: Alytes obstetricans
Animals 13(17), 2802; MDPI / PMC · 2026-10-25
- Genetic and genomic insights from the common midwife toad at its range limits
Heredity 133, 249–261; Springer Nature · 2026-10-25
- Common midwife toad — species description
Wikipedia · 2026-10-25