Gastrophryne carolinensis

Eastern narrow-mouthed toads are gray, brown, or reddish on top, often with dark spots, patches, or mottling, and often with broad stripe on each side of the back. These toads have relatively smooth skin, short limbs, unwebbed toes, and a pointed snout. A fold of skin extends across the back of the head. Maximum snout=vent length is 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). Adult males have a dark throat (light in female). Larvae have fleshy lips, with a notch in the middle of the upper lip (beaklike mandibles and labial teeth are absent); the head and body are flattened, the eyes are at the sides of the head when viewed from above. The tail fins are low, clear, and have dark pigment along the margin of the tail musculature. Larvae grow up to 1.2 inches (3 cm) in total length. Egg masses consist of a thin gelatinous film containing up to several hundred eggs at the surface of the water.

Eastern narrow-mouthed toads occur a wide variety of habitats, usually in areas with sandy or loamy soils. On land, they range up to several hundred meters from water. They burrow underground or hide beneath objects in daytime and when conditions are cold or dry. Breeding sites include lakes, ponds, sloughs, flooded roadside ditches, swamps, stream margins, rain puddles, etc., in both temporary and permanent waters. Males call from sheltered locations, often from beneath objects at the water's edge or partially buried in grass.

The toxic skin secretions of these toads protect them from many kinds of predators and may deter ant attacks as the toad forage near ant mounds. Skin secretions also help the male cling to the female while mating.

Breeding occurs usually after heavy rains, mostly in spring and summer but as early as March or as late as November. Individual females produce a clutch of up to about 850 eggs (divided among several batches). Aquatic larvae hatch from floating jelly in a couple days, metamorphose into the terrestrial form in about 3-10 weeks.