DESCRIPTION OF HELEOPHRYNE NATALENSIS. -479 



not very well developed, neither of them at this stage extending 

 as far forwards as the vent. In older specimens a feebly 

 developed adipose extension of the dorsal crest reaches 

 anreriorly to a point just above the vent. The caudal crests 

 are without a pigmentary network, but the upper one has a 

 few black lines ; the end of the tail is blackish, but elsewhere 

 it is not strongly pigmented. 



Measurements : from tip of snout to vent, 27 mm, ; from 

 vent to tip of tail, 33 mm. ; greatest depth of tail, including 

 crests, 9 mm. 



At a very late stage of the metamorphosis, when both fore- 

 and hind-limbs are well developed, the oral disc is still large 

 and conspicuous though the teeth series are absent. 



No such tadpole as that just described has hitherto been 

 recorded from South Africa. The sucker-like oral disc has 

 long been known to occur in tadpoles of Kanids inhabiting 

 the mountain streams of Borneo, Java and Burma ; but in 

 most cases the greater part of the disc seems to be derived 

 from the sub-buccal adhesive organ of the young larva, which 

 is evidently not the case in Heleophryne. The caudal 

 crests in those tadpoles, as in Heleophryne, are only slightly 

 developed anteriorly. 



ANURA. 



Megalixalus fornasinii Bianc. 



Megalixaliis fornasinii Bianc; Bonlenger, Brit. Miis. Cat. Batr. 

 Sal., p. 130. 1882. 



With this species I now include M. spinif rons Cope. A 

 single specimen taken by Fr. Boneberg at Mariannhill in May, 

 1911, has no trace of tubercles dorsally; but along the pale 

 dorso-lateral bands there are some dark spots which possibly 

 represent the tubercles of other specimens. The Natal 

 Museum has an example from Knysna in which the tubercles 

 of the dorsal surface are sparsely scattered and not con- 

 centrated on the snout. 



