40i BATRACHIA. 



Rana KUHLii. (Plate XXVI. figs. A & B.) 



Rana kuhlii {Schleg.), Dum. ^ Bibr. Erpet. gen. p. 384. Gi'mth. Batrach. Sal. p. 8. 

 corrugata, Peters, Monatsber. Berl. Acad. 1863, p. 412. 



Snout short, rounded, without canthus rostralis ; eyes very prominent, directed obliquely 

 upwards and forwards ; tympanum hidden. Lower jaw generally with a pair of very pro- 

 minent, fang-like apophyses m front ; vomerine teeth in two rather indistinct, short, oblique 

 series, convergent behind. Skin on the back with short longitudinal or transverse plaits, 

 which become indistinct with age, and with small tubercles. Hind limbs thick and short, 

 the distance between vent and metatarsal tubercle being equal to, or somewhat more than, 

 the length of the body. Tips of the toes slightly swollen, fingers tapering ; toes completely 

 webbed; a narrow fi-inge along the inner metatarsal edge, including a single elongate 

 tubercle. Brown above, marbled with darker; a reddish, black-edged transverse band 

 between the eyes. Lower parts whitish, throat and inner side of the hind limbs marbled 

 with brown. 



This frog is not uncommon in Ceylon, and is found in Java, Celebes, and at Ningpo in 

 China. The usual size of the specimens in European collections is not much more than 

 2 inches, but I have examined a specimen the body of which is 4| inches long, the hind limb 

 measuring 6 inches. In none out of eight specimens have I been enabled to find a gular 

 sac or sublingual openings. The specimens figured on Plate XXVI. are from Ningpo. 



Professor Peters (/. c.) has proposed the name of Rana corrugata for specimens received from Ceylon, 

 stating that I liad " confounded" this new species with Rana kuhlii. I may be permitted to say that, 

 altliough aware of differences existing between specimens from Ceylon and the East Indian Ai'chipelago, 

 I considered the Ceylonese examples only as a variety of Rana kuhlii, which I designated as variety B, 

 characterizing it by the transverse plaits of the skin of the back. 



Professor Peters says that his new species is distinguished by a shorter snout, by a narrower interspace 

 between the choanse, by shorter limbs, by perfectly pointed fingers, and by the transversely plaited skin 

 of the back — characters which may also be seen in those of oui* specimens which are of the same size as 

 those of the Berlin Museum, viz. of a length of from 40 to 60 millim. 



The most important, of these characters appeared to me to be the transverse folds of the skin, but this is 

 evidently not constant. We possess two examples from Ningpo, one 52 millim. and the other 100 miUim. 

 long, both having been collected by the same person at the same place. Whilst the smaller specimen 

 agrees in every respect with the Ceylonese form {R. corrugata), the larger one has lost every trace of the 

 corrugated folds, and, instead of them, small conical "warts are scattered over the back. These tubercles 

 have a wide pore at the tip, or a small horny spine, and are flat, but already visible in younger examples. 

 This proves that the transverse corrugated folds are at least as inconstant a character as the mandibulary 

 fangs. 



As regards the length of the snout and the width of the space between the choanfe and vomerine teeth, 

 we must recollect that individuals with shorter and longer snout occur in numerous other species — R. tem- 

 poraria, R. tigrina, &c. ; but I will not deny that if such a diflFerence is observed in individuals from different 

 localities, it becomes a character worthy of notice, and certainly might be used for specific distinction, if 

 joined with a second. 



AH our specimens have the fingers equally pointed, except the large one, in which the extremities of the 

 fingers are slightly rounded oft"; and I cannot find such a difference in the length of the limbs as has 



