FROGS OF COLOMBIA — COCHRAN AND GOIN 279 



Color in alcohol. — A rather light brown frog with dark brown 

 blotches on the back. In this specimen the main blotch on the back 

 consists of an interocular bar which bears a median posteriorly 

 directed process that broadens out above the shoulders and divides 

 into a broad ypsiloid blotch, the arms of which extend nearly to the 

 sacral humps. There is a single rather broad band across the back 

 about halfway between the sacral humps and the tip of the urostyle. 

 A smaller, less conspicuous blotch occurs on the dorsal surface of the 

 tip of snout. The thighs have scattered, minute pigment spots but 

 have no pattern. Three fairly distinct crossbars occur on each shank, 

 while two less-distinct ones occur on each forearm. As is characteristic 

 of this species, a narrow white horizontal line above the vent is 

 contiguous with similar lines across the bases of the heels when the 

 legs are flexed and the heels held adjacent to the vent. The ventral 

 surfaces are immaculate, now faded to a dirty brownish gray. 



Variation. — Most of the variations in the few Colombian specimens 

 at hand involve differences in the shape of the dorsal figure. In three 

 of seven specimens the dorsal figure is essentially the same as that in 

 the specimen figured here and also in the specimen figured by Cochran 

 (1955, pi. 9, e-h). The other four specimens differ in that the main 

 portions of the hour-glass figure between the eyes and across the 

 back are not connected by the narrow longitudinal band of dark 

 pigment, thus leaving a dark band between the eyes and another 

 inverted U-shaped figure across the middle of the back. 



Remarks. — Since there has been considerable confusion regarding 

 the status of H. minuta in its several forms, we here take the oppor- 

 tunity of bringing the record up to date without trying to make 

 decisions that should be withheld until the species as a whole is 

 studied throughout its range: 



1. The type locality of minuta is Rio de Janeiro. 



2. The dorsal pattern in the Rio population seems to be the hour-glass pattern, 



usually complete but sometimes with the anterior and posterior parts 

 separate, and usually but not invariably with the dorsal pattern outlined 

 in white. 



3. The pattern is quite variable in specimens in southern Brazil, and part of 



the variation may be correlated with geography. The following additional 

 names have been proposed: velata Cope, Mato Gross o; bivittata Boulenger, 

 Santa Catarina; pattern Lutz, Rio de Janeiro; emrichi Mertens, Rio Grande 

 do Sul; and suturata Miranda- Ribeiro, Rio de Janeiro. 



4. A cotype of H. goughi Boulenger described from Trinidad is actually minuta 



(BM 1911.9.8.6 [1947.2.13.83]). 



5. H. minuta occurs naturally on Trinidad (Parker, 1934, p. 123). 



6. The specimens from Colombia and Trinidad seem to be identical, and they 



lack the white border to the dorsal pattern often seen in southern specimens. 



7. Padre Francisco Silverio Pereira, the only person who seems to have studied 



specimens in life from both the north (Belem) and the south (Sao Paulo), 

 informs us that the voice is distinctly different in the two populations. 



