Ok, I admit it: biology does not recognize the term, toadpole, and instead speaks of a toad’s tadpole. However, not only is toadpole a delightful portmanteau, it is the original form, the tad merely being a corruption of toad.
These tadpoles were observed on a pond, not far from where an adult Western Toad was seen this spring. Following that there was a posting about a passion of toads. It seems that once again this year we may see toadlets aplenty. Three pictures follow.
Hi Alistair,
I am curious as to the size of these ‘toadpoles’, I love the word by the way, while living in Trout Lake many years ago I saw quite a number of very large tadpoles and have wondered ever since what they were. I assumed toads but they were really big in my mind, close to the size of a quarter. Or did they grow in my mind over time?
Lorna, not large, but I suppose one could scale them from the willow leaves in the final picture. I decided that these were the tadpoles of our local toad rather than of our two local frogs by looking at a tadpole identification website.
When I was a kid I referred to ‘toadpoles’ and ‘polyfrogs’. I thought I had made the words up – interesting to learn that ‘toadpole’ was the original form. My spell-checker doesn’t like it .