184 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 88 



arm, anterior portion of side below the dorsolateral stripe, and iris 

 bright golden bronze; concealed surfaces of thighs, arms, and along 

 sides of body inky blue; underside of chin, throat, and belly bluish 

 gray; and there is some metachrosis, as the dorsal ground color varies 

 from a greenish bronze at times to a clear pale bronze at others. 

 Female: Similar in pattern to the male but the dorsal ground color 

 is a waxy pea green with no trace of bronze, and the top of the head 

 tends toward sky blue rather than bronze; the tympanum and iris 

 bronze, as in the male, but no noticeable bronze along the sides. 



Voice. — A living male (in the office of the junior author) calls 

 irregularly during the day and night. The call is made up of two 

 parts — first a series of six to eight snarls followed by a series of four 

 to eight short, explosive, single notes. The snarl is not too unlike 

 that of Scaphiopus, and the explosive notes which follow are very 

 similar to a single note of Rana virgatipes, although they are not given 

 nearly so rapidly. No pattern was discernible in the time of calling, 

 since he would call in morning, in afternoon, or at night. 



Life history. — Two pairs of specimens were sent alive to the senior 

 author in March 1962, by Marte Latham. The gravid female and a 

 male were retained at the U.S. National Museum for observation 

 and the other pair was sent to the junior author in Gainesville, 

 Florida. 



The gravid female at the Museum give birth to 96 tadpoles on the 

 weekend of April 6-8. The egg capsules from which the tadpoles 

 emerged were found in the water and measured. While still in the 

 water they ranged from four to five millimeters in diameter. Thirteen 

 of the tadpoles were found dead on Monday morning, April 8. Of 

 those remaining, 43 were kept at the Museum for observation and 

 40 were sent to the National Zoological Park. The specimens at the 

 Museum started metamorphosing in May; the last one transformed 

 on August 24. When the last specimens of this series were preserved 

 on August 31, 1962, the largest individual had a head-body length 

 of 30.4 millimeters. 



When first hatched the tadpoles had a head-body length of about 

 10 millimeters and a tail length of about 15 millimeters. The body was 

 about 5 millimeters in diameter. On April 9 the tadpoles were observed 

 feeding on Spirogyra in the aquarium. On April 12 a piece of pork 

 chop (cooked) was put in the aquarium and they immediately gathered 

 around it and started feeding on it like pigs at a trough. 



As the above data indicate, the tadpoles do not all grow at the 

 same rate, metamorphosis occurring in this one lot from about mid- 

 May to August 24. 



Remarks. — We believe that G. mertensi probably is most closely 

 related to marsupiata, but since we do not have first-hand knowledge 



