344 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



above and cream below. The eggs looked larger and farther apart than are 

 those of Rana sphenocephala. Near by a large cypress stump in an open 

 grassy area where pine cones were on the bottom a large mass was attached 

 to a sedge stem. Its top was level with the surface of the water. The water 

 was 9 inches deep. The mass was 4x5 inches square and i 1/2 inches thick. 

 At first the mass impressed all of us as bluish and two of us independently 

 likened it to R. sylvatica in this respect. The lower pole may be cream at 

 first but it soon becomes white. The whole mass when turned over reveals the 

 same white mass impression R. sphenocephala and R. pi piens egg masses give. 



On the southeastern side of the pond where Mr. Pirnie was watching the 

 frogs the previous night he also found two masses among young cypress and 

 attached to sedges was one mass 6x8 inches square and i 1/2-2 inches thick. 

 It seemed to be emarginate but when the lobes were drawn out the mass be- 

 came 12x4 inches square. The second mass was amongst "all spice bushes," 

 (Malapoena geniculata) was also attached to sedges and was 4x5 inches 

 across. It was only i 1/2 inches below the surface. 



On one occasion, August 21, in a pool filled with R. aesopus tadpoles we 

 found a suspicious mass of jelly 6x6x3 inches, an intact mass of jelly evelope 

 of a frog complement which I believed to be that of R. aesopus. On another 

 occasion July 28, 1922, in the grassy center of a very large open pond I found 

 an immense mass of eggs, then assumed to be R. sphenocephala eggs but they 

 were those of R. aesopus. The jelly envelope as in R. pipiens and R. spheno- 

 cephala tend to stay together some time after the egg has hatched. 



The egg masses vary from 4x5x1 inches through 4x5x1 1/2, 6x6x2, 

 6x8x1 1/2 to 12x4x2 inches in dimensions. They may be attached to 

 grass, sedges, pickerel weed, or other aquatic plant stems, twigs and brush or 

 be free at times on the bottom as in R. pipiens or R. sphenocephala. 



LeConte's comment on R. capita may have led workers astray from the 

 gopher frog because they did not know its breeding habits. Obviously (p. 

 425) his word that it "inhabits Georgia in the ditches of the rice fields" per- 

 tains to its short breeding habitat. 



Egg description. In Rana aesopus the outer envelope ranges from 4.4 to 

 6.0 mm. in diameter, the usual range 4.8-5.4 mm., the average 5.3 mm., the 

 mode 5.2 mm.; the middle envelope is from 3.1-4.4 mm., the average is 3.9, 

 the mode 3.8; the vitellus is 1.8-2.4 mm., the average is 2.0 mm., the mode is 

 2.0 mm.; the vegetative pole is cream at first later white, the animal pole is 

 black. The rough measurements of some ovarian eggs of July 25 were 1.6- 

 1.8 mm. Possibly they were not fully developed. The vitellus and inner 

 envelope of R. aesopus is somewhat larger than in the meadow frogs (R. 

 pipiens and R. sphenocephala). On August 10, 1922, I divided the eggs of 

 the left side of a female in eight equal parts. One of these parts had 313 or 

 for the whole side 2504 or 5008 for the whole complement. The eggs look 

 larger than those of R. sphenocephala and farther apart in the mass. 



Dangers. The dangers from drying up little affect the gopher frog in 

 contrast to some of the other Salientia of pine barrnes, e.g., the oak toad, 

 southern toad and pine woods tree frog. It chooses in general permanent open 

 ponds and cypress ponds. 



