Acris gryllus 183 



rows of horny denticles on the upper hp. On the lower lip, there are in 

 Chorophiliis three rows of denticles, but in Acris only two. Furthermore, in 

 Chorophilus the denticles are finely serrated at their tips; in Acris this is not 

 the case. The teeth of the latter genus are less numerous than in the former." 

 No one else speaks of these mouth parts except Miss Dickerson (1906, p. 156) 

 who uses Hay's characterization. Had the author of this article remembered 

 this observation he would not have had so much difficulty in 19 14, 191 7 and 

 192 1 before he finally identified the tadpoles. 



In 192 1 the first time we took adult Acris tadpoles with any degree of 

 certainty was May 3 1 . From that date to July 5 or 8 we still called them the 

 black tipped tadpoles with some question as to their identity. For example, 

 on July 2, we found "tadpoles with black tail tip. Are they Acris or some- 

 thing else? Not like normal coloration of Acris tadpoles." Even then the 

 old error of considering H. femoralis tadpoles Acris gryllus still persisted with 

 us and even to the date of this writing Hyla femoralis tadpoles from 19 1 2- 

 1 92 1, crop up in our collection labeled .4cm gryllus. It all arose because of a 

 theory that the alternation of light and brown bands on tail musculature 

 were transferred to the rear of the femur. Such alternation occurs in the tail 

 musculature of a Hyla femoralis tadpole and on the rear of the thighs of 

 Acris gryllus. Hence Hyla femoralis tadpoles were called Acris gryllus 

 tadpoles for a long time. In fact, even though we were quite satisfied in 1922 

 we still vacillated per the following note: "July 13, took in an overflow a 

 quantity of tadpoles. ... A few had a black tip to the tail. Most of 

 these, however, have lost the black tip. They have a triangle between the 

 eyes and the banded arrangement on hind legs as do Acris adults. They are 

 Acris gryllus. But what about the tadpoles recorded earlier as having a light 

 and dark banded arrangement on the tail, an alternation of bands?" We now 

 know that the tadpole with alternation of light and dark bands on the tail 

 musculature is of Hyla femoralis and that the tadpole with a black tail tip 

 is of Acris gryllus. 



This tadpole puzzles us in more ways then one. Of it on July 8, 1921, we 

 write "Found some tadpoles mature and with black tail tip. These are slim, 

 long-tailed forms. The most conspicuous thing about them when alive is 

 the -protruding spiraciilar tube." The tadpole looked like a true frog tadpole 

 and we were trying to link it up with Rarias whose life histories we did not 

 know and that went on until the middle of the summer of 1922. Witness the 

 following: "July 11 in a pond on the island between the first and second dreen 

 we found in my seine one or two of these long-tailed black-tipped tadpoles. 

 It was a cypress area, wooded, has Polygala cymosa, Sahbatia decandra, 

 poison ivy, Hex myrtifolia, Pieris phiUyrei folia, Leucoihae, Clethra. This 

 tadpole does not have the crest far forward on the back. It has two rows of 

 teeth above and two below. Can it be Rana virgatipes and that we missed 

 that species at Billy's Lake in 192 1? It looks more of a Ranid than a Hylid 

 tadpole. It is not Hyla squirella nor Hyla graliosa.'^ In writing up the 

 tadpoles of our 1912-1914 we described Hyla femoralis tadpole for Acris 

 gryllus, but it did not appear in print but unfortunately in 192 1 (p. 33) we 



