112 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



Ranidae. 



12. Phyllobates limbatus Cope. 



Plate 1, fig. 4. 



Diagnosis: — Probably the smallest of living amphibians, a tiny terrestrial 

 frog, rich maroon-brown with a yellow stripe on the thighs, sides of the body 

 and around the head, meeting on the tip of the nose. 



Description: — Adult M. C. Z. 7,843. Cuba: Colonia Guabairo near 

 Cienfuegos, February, 1910. Rosamond and Thomas Barbour. 



Tongue oval, entire; body rather stout; head not wider than body; snout 

 rather abruptly acute; skin of back and sides very finely granular, skin of belly 

 smooth; tympanum two thirds the diameter of the orbit, its distance from the 

 latter a httle less than its own diameter; nostril much nearer tip of snout than 

 eye; subarticular tubercles very feebly developed, a very weak outer, no inner, 

 metatarsal tubercle; the hind limb being extended along the body the heel 

 just reaches the posterior border of the orbit, the Umbs being flexed vertically 

 to the axis of the body the heels fail to meet by a considerable distance. 



Colour (in Ufe) : — Above rich, lustrous maroon-brown; a brilliant yellow 

 band extends from the tip of the snout, along each side and down the thighs 

 to the knee; sides of body below the yellow fine and front aspects of thighs 

 black; elsewhere limbs chestnut-brown; belly yellowish cream-colour. 



Dimensions: — Tip of snout to vent 11.5 mm. 



Width of head 3 . 5 mm. 



Fore hmb from axilla 6 . 5 mm. 



Hind Umb from vent 16.5 mm. 



Vent to heel 10 mm. 



This is the most deUcate and beautifully coloured amphibian known to us. 

 It was one of the remarkable discoveries made by that most excellent collector 

 Charles Wright, in the vicinity of Guantanamo. The types, probably from 

 Monte Verde, are in the U. S. N. M., though dried up beyond recognition. 

 The species was rediscovered at two localities on the Soledad Estate in 1910 

 (Barbour) and a few years later it was foimd once more near Wright's old type- 

 locahty in the mountains near Guantanamo, at La Union, on Monte Libano, 

 Monte Toro, Yateras, Bayate, Belona and at La Cobrera (Ramsden). In 

 1915 de la Torre sent a single specimen to the M. C. Z. from Cayo del Rey 



