358 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



Tympanum like back. No different rings like the male. Spot from arm in- 

 sertion under eye and forward obscure in part, pale ochraceous buff or light 

 buff. Under parts with deep brown drab reticulations and cloudings. Spots 

 onlower jawpalechalecdony yellow. For remainder of description see the male. 



Two specimens (From life August i8, 1922). A female dark olive buff 

 uniform above. The smaller specimen wood brown to avellaneous and uni- 

 form above. In both back of eye and side of head and over angle of mouth 

 apple green. Bars on hind legs absent in this female; scanty in smaller 

 specimen. 



Structural differences. Enlarged thumbs and tympana in male; rings of 

 color in male tympana; throat with bright chalcedony yellow. 



"In 1912 we had 14 adults of which twelve were males. Male specimens 

 of 59-65 mm. show ear drums well developed and this sexual difference may 

 possibly appear in even smaller specimens. All the males have the forefingers 

 more or less swollen ; in the two taken after July 15 it is least developed and 

 the three with it most highly developed were taken June i and 12, 19 12. A 

 female taken June 5, 191 2 was spent and another female taken May 2 8- July 

 15, 191 2, is with ripe eggs. These ovarian eggs are 1.2- 1.5 mm. in diameter 

 and this female has no more than 1,000 eggs to lay. In size she is only 67.5 

 mm. in length, much more slender and smaller than the average of our northern 

 green frog females which have from 3,500-4,500 or more eggs to lay." 



Duration. In general mating with an individual male is of short duration. 

 But the species in the northern states breeds for a long period, last of May to 

 August. In the south it is one of the last to begin breeding and doubtless is 

 not one of the forms which breeds most of the year. There are one or two 

 species in the south which might breed almost every month in the year 

 (except one or two months), but in the south the green frog is not in this class. 



Night or day. In general this shy species in the Okefinokee Swamp mates 

 or begins mating mainly at night. Sometimes in the dark shades of cypress 

 ponds or "bays" it mates by day. 



Amplexation — {Normal, abnormal). Normally it is pectoral in this 

 species. The first amplexation for this species I ever recorded at Ithaca was 

 more Hyla-like than Rana-like. The first record for Okefinokee Swamp is of 

 the same sort. A pair mated in laboratory on Billy's Island, July 4, 192 1, 

 were more axillary in embrace than pectoral. With only these two examples 

 one might go astray. The males, however, almost invariably seize the females 

 in pectoral fashion. 



OVULATION 



Habitat. They seek small, permanent ponds in the hammocks, the 

 island edges of cypress ponds and cypress bays in the shade. Under Rana 

 grylio we noted in one cypress pond how Rana grylio males were calling in the 

 center of the open pond amongst Pontederia cordata, the Ilyla cinerea males 

 were in the bushes where open pond and wooded fringe of pond meet and the 

 Rana clamitans males were in the shade of the large trees near the land's edge. 

 They are greater shade lovers than any other frog of the swamp region unless 

 it be Rana heckscheri. 



