General Discussion 27 



have seen mated pairs of at least 32-35 species and of some species many 

 pairs. In general in nature the eggs are laid soon after amplexation. The 

 females do not approach breeding grounds or males until ready or nearly 

 ready. Occasionally or rarely a pair may be mated in toads while en route 

 to pond, but normally they meet at the breeding grounds. Many times 

 with laboratory mating or sometimes with pairs brought into capitvity several 

 days elapse before ovulation and then often the eggs do not develop. 



We have also seen little indications of unmated males fertilizing the eggs 

 or egg masses already laid as has been recorded for European forms. One 

 wonders how many of those observations were made in the field. Further- 

 more the unmated males will hang about the egg masses laid because usually 

 this is where the non-ovulated females will lay. They often hide under the 

 masses, about them, etc. In such areas we hunt for the frogs, males, females 

 and mated frogs. 



If the supernumerary males have accidentally or designedly fertilized egg 

 masses it has not been observed by us. Query also has been asked what 

 stimulus prompts the male to discharge his sperm thus without the female. 

 If they do it maybe the same that has caused individual females of many 

 species to ovulate without a male or ovulate if the male is removed. Possibly 

 with some males as with these females the process has gone so far and the 

 frenzy or intensity of mating so vigorous no stay is possible. 



Fall or late summer copulation has engaged some workers' attention. In 

 the northern states where the ovulation periods of species are short or in 

 European species some assert that a male will copulate a second time. Whether 

 it be a second time or a male which ripened late is not always ascertained. If 

 one glance at the breeding seasons of these Okefinokee frogs as with desert 

 species, he will discover some breeding from February or March to October i, 

 November i, or December. This probably means that there are ripening 

 individuals ready for each suitable rainy period, not necessarily one short 

 crestal period as occurs in some northern species and that a male or female 

 breeds only once that season. 



Many of us in the north have been accustomed to thinking when we heard 

 a common meadow frog croak in August or September or a peeper in Septem- 

 ber or October, that this is an exuberant salutation before it goes into hiberna- 

 tion. Possibly in some cases it means nothing. In other cases it may mean 

 males which have ripened. For example, in September 1929 our automobile 

 went bad at night before a farm in lower Wabash valley. The instant we 

 got out we heard an immense chorus of southern meadow frogs, Rana spheno- 

 cephala. We asked ourselves if it were a play chorus. The next day on our 

 way to Olney, 111. in some ponds we found several fresh masses of eggs. The 

 fall croaking then in some instances in the north may mean breeding or 

 incipient urges to breeding. 



COLORATION FROM LIFE 



In this discussion we have attempted to give a Ridgway description of 

 live Okefinokee representatives of males and females. Normally descriptions 



