Rana heckscheri 393 



My journal reads thus: "In one cut off pool in a water course (which now 

 is a succession of separated pools) we hauled the seine. It was covered with a 

 wriggly mass which at first looked like water beetles to Miles (Dr. M. D. 

 Pirnie). I must confess I would have seen them the same way if I had not 

 seen them before. The tails are transparent and were hardly in evidence. 

 They have a band across the back. In another cut-off from the river proper 

 (St. Mary's River) in shallow water they were in immense numbers and pre- 

 sented a very beautiful sight in sunlit situations with their dark bodies and 

 transverse bands. Were it not for the transverse bands, they would look like 

 toad tadpoles. Then I provisionally placed them with the green tree frog, 

 Hyla cinerea, which sometimes has somewhat the same appearance." 



Three days later, July 20, we started for Jacksonville, Florida. "At 

 Callahan, Florida, (just north) near a large concrete bridge for the Dixie 

 Highway, a car was stuck on the smaller bridge to the west in the detour and 

 we had to wait. In the areas beside the new Dixie Highway were shallow 

 ponds or overflowed areas. These were tributary to Alligator Swamp which 

 in turn is a part of Mills Swamp (U. S. Geol Survey Sheet, Hilliard). At first 

 I saw a few cross-banded forms of the Thompson's landing sort which I took 

 to be Hyla cinerea. Now I suspect they are probably R. aesopus or R. 

 virgatipes, probably the former. We collected a few and went on. They are 

 very conspicuous with black rimmed crests and black bands on upper half of 

 tail musculature and a light color on lower musculature. In one-third grown 

 ones the cross bands show through faintly. When full grown it disappears." 



On July 21, on our return from Jacksonville "we stopped at Callahan 

 (Alligator Swamp). The tadpoles of July 20 were abundant. They travel 

 in big schools as no other big tadpoles do. They remind me of a school of 

 mature Bufo tadpoles. Once in a while amongst the fair sized ones were 

 monsters almost as big as a bullfrog tadpole. And these monsters have no 

 suggestion of hind leg buds. Does this species winter over one or two years 

 as a tadpole?" 



We checked up our Thompson Landing (Georgia) and Alligator Swamp 

 (Florida) material and found them all of the same species. We later found 

 they could not be tadpoles of Rana aesopus or Rana virgatipes. 



On June 8, 1928, we went "to the type locality for Rana heckscheri. Saw 

 plenty of tadpoles amongst vegetation under the Dixie Highway bridge. 

 Captured about 12 transformed individuals. Can approach them when head 

 is out of water and can catch them by hand. Or they may rest on mudflats 

 where we also secured some. Many are with 4 legs and a long tail. . . . The 

 transformed frogs are somewhat like greenfrogs but with more intensified 

 spottings on the belly. These as transformed frogs and as adults have no 

 lateral folds." 



One June 9 "at Mr. Davis's brick yard in the large clay pool in the shade 

 of the trees amongst Polygonum hydropiper were plenty of these tadpoles and 

 transformed frogs near or at the edge of the water. Here in the shade they 

 hopped about in amongst the weeds. They hid amongst vegetation, under 

 boards and sticks or finally hopped into the water. There were a few bigger 



