54 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 88 



The species is quite easy to recognize, for preserved examples are 

 ragged-looking because of the usually torn skin and often are dark 

 colored, with little of the delicacy of form or pattern found in latinasus, 

 brunneus, and some of the other forms in the genus. The toes are 

 one-third to one-half webbed in nearly all examples of palmatus, and 

 the web is conspicuous because of its paler color between the dark 

 toes. The posterior half of the belly is granular, often finely or faintly 

 so. 



In about 70 percent of the examples measured the adpressed heel 

 reaches to the center or anterior border of eye, in 15 percent it reaches 

 to a point between eye and the tip of the snout, and in the remaining 

 15 percent it reaches to a point between shoulder and posterior corner 

 of eye. 



Adult males have a dark gray or black throat, and sometime there 

 is a short longitudinal fold down each side of the throat, giving evi- 

 dence of a pair of lateral vocal sacs. The third finger showed a "flange" 

 in only two males (CNHM 61176, 61180) both from Catival, upper 

 Rio San Jorge, Bolivar. 



Metamorphosis often takes place when the young are some 15 

 millimeters in length. UNMS 145030 from Buenavista, Meta, is 15 

 millimeters long and has no trace of a tail. Its arms and legs are like 

 those of an adult, and its mouth is nearly so. In another 15-milli- 

 meter example (USNM 145028), from the same place, a tail measur- 

 ing 8.5 millimeters still remains, and the mouth is not yet that of an 

 adult, although the limbs are fully formed. But CNHM 61823 from 

 Alto de Quimari, Bolivar, measuring only 12.5 millimeters, has no 

 trace of a tail, and has well-developed limbs and mouth; hence, the 

 developmental rate in different individuals may differ considerably. 



The body color in most preserved adults is a fairly uniform dark 

 purplish brown, but often the lighter individuals show the wide darker 

 dorsal chevrons and three wide dark crossbands on femur, tibia, and 

 outside of foot. The torn places in the skin are white, and at a short 

 distance they may give the quite misleading appearance of a light- 

 spotted animal. Some examples have a pale stripe beginning above 

 the shoulder as a narrow light line but widening as it goes diagonally 

 downwards to the front of the groin, and sometimes breaking up into 

 several short pale spots. This light stripe may have been orange or 

 yellow in life. Some frogs lack the light lateral stripe, but usually 

 there is at least one small pale spot just in front of the groin. 



Specimens Examined 

 COLOMBIA 



Amazon as: Puerto Narifio, MLS 23. 



Antioquia: Caldas, USNM 150693; Yarumal, USNM 146857-9. 



