394 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



ones with them but they were more wary. Countless tadpoles are in this 

 immense clay hole. Sometimes the tadpoles are so thick that one can reach 

 in with his hands and catch them." 



"On the east side saw prodigious schools of little black tadpoles with 

 yellowish cross bands on the body. Amongst them are some bigger ones, 

 about one-half inch in body length. This means two lots or breeding periods 

 this year." 



Oftentimes these schools would mass like a school of young catfish. At 

 times one tadpole would lead out and the whole school would go in single file 

 or the head and tail of the line might meet and all merge into mass formation 

 again. Frequently smaller schools of the bigger size would be segregated 

 from the smaller ones. All kinds of formations were made and the tadpoles 

 are striking, either young or old. These pools have waterlilies, Sagittaria, 

 water hyacinth, Hydrocotyle, etc. 



LARVAL PERIOD 



If I did not know that in the South there are some Rana catesbeiana 

 which transform in one year or in the North Rana septentrionalis which some- 

 times spend two winters in the tadpole stage, I would feel inclined to believe 

 this species always spent two winters in the tadpole stage. The largest tad- 

 poles reach about loo mm. When we caught them in July (2 ist) or in August 

 (i8th), there were at least two or three distinctive sizes of tadpoles. The 

 largest ones were scarce. Doubtless the vast bulk of tadpoles at this time 

 July 2i-August 18 were one year olds or newly hatched tadpoles. 



Our tentative conclusions above of 1922 in general express the situation 

 as we see it in 1928. In 1928 we took tadpoles which drop into two groups 

 namely, small and very large. The first of the clay pit of Callahan, Florida, 

 are manifestly of the first year and appear to fall into three sizes: 10-15 mm. 

 (body 7 mm.), 20-25 mm. (body 10 mm.), 30-35 mm. (body 12-15 mm.). 

 Apparently this means three different breedings in the spring. The other 

 group are the large transforming or near transforming tadpoles. Certainly 

 it seems as if two years might be needed to arrive at the maximum size yet 

 we found in 1922 and 1928 no intermediate tadpoles between the very large 

 ones (75-100 mm.) and the 30-35 mm. sizes which might imply a shorter 

 larval period. 



In 192 1 the three secured from the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries from Savan- 

 nah, Ga., measured 44, 60 mm. albinos and 70 mm. normal. The three taken 

 by Mr. Harper and Marion Lee measured 83, 88 and 90 mm. respectively. 

 Except for one of these last the hind legs were pigmy in size. This material 

 does not seriously mihtate against two years for larval life though one year 

 may be all. 



TRANSFORMATION 



Period. On July 20, 21, 1922, and August 18, 1922, there were few of the 

 large tadpoles. Doubtless transformation comes mainly before July. The 

 few mature tadpoles of these dates were quite clearly stragglers. They might 

 not have transformed before September loth or 15th. 



