DISCOGLOSSIDAE 159 



her round the waist. For nearly half an hour the male lubricates 

 the cloacal region of the female by more than one thousand 

 strokes of his toes, whereupon .the female extends the hind- limbs, 

 forming with the bent hind-limbs of the male a receptacle for 

 the eggs, which are then expelled with a sudden noise. The 

 eggs are yellow and large, up to 5 mm. in diameter, and are 

 fastened together in two rosary-like strings, several dozen making 

 one set. During the expulsion of the eggs the male shifts its 

 body forwards, clasps his fore-limbs round the female's head, and 

 fecundates the eggs. After a rest he pushes first one hind-limb 

 and then the other through the convoluted mass of eggs, which 

 then have the appearance of being wound round the hind- 

 limbs in a figure of 8. Then the sexes separate and the male 

 withdraws with its precious load into its hole, which it, however, 

 leaves during the following nights, in search of food, taking 

 this opportunity to moisten the eggs in the. dew, occasionally 

 even immersing them in the water. After at least three weeks, 

 when the larvae are nearly ready, he betakes himself to the 

 nearest water, and the larvae burst the thereby softened 

 gelatinous cover of the eggs. Not infrequently the same male 

 ventures upon a second pairing, and adds another load to the 

 one which already hampers its movements. The eggs being 

 large, owing to the great amount of yellow food-yolk, the embryos 

 are enabled to be hatched in a more advanced stage than in most 

 other Anura. The larva develops only one pair of external gills 

 within the egg. These appear first in the shape of oval bags 

 upon the third branchial arch, which sprout out secondary 

 branches, soon in their turn to be resorbed and replaced by the 

 so-called internal gills before hatching. 



Fischer-Sigwart l gives the following account of the growth 

 of this species. The male took to the \vater, with its load of 

 twenty to thirty eggs, on the 6th of June. The larvae escaped 

 out at once, 16-17 mm. long, the body measuring 5 mm. On 

 the 14th they had reached 32 mm. in length, whereupon they 

 grew very slowly, although they were well fed, in a temperature 

 of about 50 F. This same brood did not metamorphose until 

 May of the next year. The growth took place as follows : 

 The hind-limbs appeared on the 8th of September, when the 

 tadpoles were 5 mm. long ; by the middle of the next May they 



1 Zool. Garten, 1885, p. 299. 



