Golden toad led bachelors to attack amplectant pairs and form what has been described as a "writhing masses of toad balls". During the 1977 and 1982 seasons, males outnumbered females by over 8 to 1 at breeding pools. Each toad couple produced 200–400 eggs each week for the six-week mating period, with each egg approximately 3 mm in diameter. The eggs of the golden toad, black and tan spheres, were deposited in small pools often no more than one-inch deep. Tadpoles emerged in a matter of days, but required another four or five weeks for metamorphosis. During this period, they were highly
The House of the Toad the universe and caused it to evolve both intelligence and the capacity to suffer. The novel incorporates references to Robert W. Chambers's King in Yellow mythology as well as to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The god Ghanta in the story is hinted to be identical to the Ghatanothoa of Lovecraft's story "Out of the Aeons". S.T. Joshi provides an extensive description of the plot and a criticism of the work in his "The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos" (Mythos Books, 2008), pp. 273–75. The House of the Toad The House of the Toad is a Cthulhu Mythos horror