Michael Junck, age 11, of Sioux City, Iowa for his question:

Frogs and toads are very much alike, but there are enough differences to classify them in separate genera. Sometimes it is hard to tell them apart and even their common names may be confusing, Some frogs are called toads and some toads are called frogs. The wonderful Surinam toad who hatches her eggs in bumps on her back has the features of a frog. The robber frog is a toad. The so‑called horned toad of the deserts is neither a frog nor a toad. This lazy, miniature dragon is actually a lizard.

Newts and salamanders, frogs and toads all. belong in class Amphibia, ‑‑‑‑~. the fascinating dwellers on land and in water. All begin life as eggs and pass through a fishy larva stage. Unlike their cousins, however, the frogs and toads have no tails. They are the tailless amphibians, all members of the order Salientia, a word which means the leaping animals. All of them depend upon the high jump to dodge their enemies and many are graceful high diving acrobats.

The salientians are subdivided into two genera, Rana and Bufo. The word rana means frog in Latin and also in modern Spanish. In some South American countries Mr. Frog is called Senor Rana. In the language of science, all the frogs are classified in the genus Rana. All the toads are classified in the genus Bufo, a word from Latin meaning toad.

The frog is a graceful animal, usually longer and more slender than the toad. His cool, rough skin is damp and slippery with mucus. The squat, chunky toad has a rough, damp skin though he is not slippery to the touch. The warts on his back are not catching, as some people think However, these little bumps are glands which make poison. If there is a cut or scratch on your hands, this poison may irritate it.

Otherwise, most toads are quite safe to handle. A dog who tries to eat a toad may find the poison very unpleasant. He may foam at the mouth and refuse toad meat forever.

Amphibians need water for their eggs and their fishy tadpole stage. Even in their adult lives their skins need moisture and they cannot abide long spells of dry weather. The small, stubby‑toed tree frogs, alias tree toads, find their moisture in the leafy foliage. Some find enough water from the dew and the rain for their eggs and tadpoles. We may call them either tree frogs or tree toads. But science classifies them in the separate genus Hyla.

The physical differences between a frog and a toad are not very great. Their early lives are alike. Both hatch in water or damp dew drops from round black eggs set in gobs of clear jelly. Both become inky tadpoles, taking their oxygen from a pair of gills. In the early stages, it takes an expert to tell them apart.

At last the tadpoles lose their tails and trade their gills for a pair of air‑breathing lungs. They can now cope with life on land and the toads soon separate themselves from the frogs. The toads leave their watery home and hop away to spend their adult lives in the fields and shady woods. The frogs never leave home. They spend their adult lives in and around the water where they lived as tadpoles.