VI ACLOSSA 149 



ill tJic Cambridge Botanic Ciardens, a tmnsfcr which had the 

 desired effect. Eggs were laid, and more during the Inllowing 

 nights ; they hatched out within thirty hours. The whole brood 

 was lost, before any of thein were older than a few days, since they 

 were attacked, beyond the possibility of a cure, by a Sapwleynid 

 or some similar pest. ;. 



Hymcnocliirvs, rei)resented by one species, H. hoettgeri, has 

 lieen discovered in the Ituri, (rerman East Africa, and in tlie 

 French Congo, and has iki (h»ubt a much wider distrilxition. 

 It is scarcely 1^ inch long, and is easily recognised by the 

 toothless mouth, the half-webbed fingers (hence the generic 

 name), the incompletely webbed toes, the third of whicli is 

 longer than the fourth, and the absence of sen.sory muciferous 

 canals in the skin. The three inner toes are, as in A'enopus, 

 furnished with small black claws. The skin is rough, beset with 

 small granular tubercles. The general colour above and below 

 is olive-brown. The vent is, as in Xeno2n(s, produced into a 

 spout or semi-canal, but is devoid of dorsal flaps of skin. 



FijjK. — This Neotropical member of the Aglossa is (juite tooth- 

 less, but the jaws of the adult have horny substitutes. The only 

 species is F. americana, the famous Surinam Toad, chiefly 

 known from the Guianas, but undoubtedly extending mucli 

 further, having recently been reported from the neighbourhood 

 of Para. 



The general shape of this creature is very peculiar. The head 

 is much depressed and triangular ; the eyes are very small : the 

 skin forms several short, irregularly-shaped flaps and tentacles 

 on tlie upper lips and in front of the eye, and at the angle ol" 

 the mouth. The tympanum is invisible. The pupil is round. 

 The fingers are very slender and free, ending in star-shaped ti])S ; 

 the toes are broadly webbed. The whole skin is covered with 

 small tubercles and is dark brown above, while the under parts of 

 the very flat and depressed body are whitish, sometimes with a 

 dark brown stripe along the middle line. In the female the skin 

 of the back forms growths for the reception of the eggs, and in 

 these the young undergo their whole metamorphosis. 



The most characteristic feature of the skin,' wliich has 

 exactly the same structure in both sexes, is the papillae, wliirh 



' (Jroenbei-ii; uiid Klinckowstroeni,," Zur Anatoniie der /^/"/w <'/"er('c«Ji^'," Zool. 

 Jahrh. All, If. vii. 1894, p. 609. J, 



