*evv v 



NOTES ON THE ROBBER FROG °* A * 



(LITHODYTES LATRANS COPE).* 



John K. Strecker, Jr. 



The Robber Frog, Lithodytes latrans, is one of the most 

 peculiar and little known of the frog-like amphibians 

 inhabiting the State of Texas. Discovered by Mr. G. W. 

 Marnock, near Helotes, Bexar County, in 1878, and de- 

 scribed in the same year by Cope, 1 it is still a rare species 

 in collections. In 1899, the present writer discovered its 

 presence at Waco, nearly 200 miles north of the type 

 locality, in a rather different faunal region. 



Lithodytes latrans has in all probability an extensive 

 range, but, on account of its peculiarly secretive and noc- 

 turnal habits, has been overlooked by the most eminent 

 herpetologists who have visited Texas. Its distribution 

 is entirely dependent on the presence of the exposures of 

 white limestone which enclose many of the streams of the 

 central and southern sections of the State. 



It is a land animal, hiding in caves and fissures during 

 the daytime, and, excepting during the brief breeding 

 period, venturing abroad only at night. Breeding in wa- 

 ter-filled pockets and hollows in the rocks and in the 

 rocky beds of small streams, it does not appear to be per- 

 fectly at home in the water at any time and specimens ob- 

 served by me made no attempt to conceal themselves by 

 diving but swam clumsily across small pools and sought 

 to escape by leaping up the bank on the opposite side. A 

 breeding pair remain in copula close in to the bank. The 

 masses of water-soaked leaves which line the edges of 

 the pools and hollows serve them for the purpose of float- 

 ing their fertilized eggs. 



* Presented by title to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, May 2, 1910. 

 1 American Naturalist, 1878 : 186. 



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