108 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



shima or Okinawa). — Okada, Cat. Vert. Japan, 1891, p. 67 (Tokyo; Awaji; 

 Suwo). — Werner, Abh. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. (Muenchen), II Klasse, 

 XXII, Pt. 2. 1904, p. 358 (Shanghai). 



J886. Rana martensi Boulenger, Proc. Zool. See. London, 1886, p. 414 (type- 

 locality, Tokyo; types, Berlin Mus. Nos. 4410-4411; Martens, collector). — 

 BoETTGER, Kat. Batr. Mus. Senckenberg., 1892, p. 10 (Ekingami, near 

 Yokohama). 



1886. Rana martcnsii Boulenger, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 599; author's 

 separate (p. 5). 



1904. Rana japonica var. ornativentris Werner, Al)h. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. 

 (Muenchen), II Klasse, XXII, Pt. 2, p. 383 (type-locality, Nikko, Hondo, 

 Japan; type in Zool. Mus. Akad. Wiss. Munich; Doctor Haberer, 

 collector). 



R. japonica seems chiefly characterized by the pointed snout. 

 This character is seconded by rather long legs, the tibio-tarsal joint 

 as a rule reaching beyond the snout, though in several specimens 

 falling short of it. The inner metatarsal tubercle is rather strong. 



From this I can not separate R. martensi, based by Boulenger 

 upon Yedo (now Tokyo) specimens. I have examined the cotype in 

 the British Museum, a rather short-legged female, but I can find no 

 character, neither in the position of nostrils, metatarsal tubercle, 

 fingers, nor coloration, which will separate this specimen from a 

 large series of true R. japomca; it has also the pointed snout of the 

 latter." 



Description. — Adult male; U.S.N.M. No. 23549; Yokohama, Hondo; 

 Sep. 1896; L. Stejneger, collector (figs. 85-89). Vomerine teeth in 

 two oblique patches on a line \vith the center of the choanae and 

 extending slightly behind the latter; snout long, pointed, the dis- 

 tance from orbit to tip of snout longer than width between black 

 stripes at the anterior border of orbit; nostrils nearer the tip of snout 

 than the eyes; interorbital space equals the width of upper eyelid; 

 tympanum about two-thirds the diameter of eye, and slightly more 



a The frogs of the Rana temporaria group present some of the most difficult problems 

 to the student, even with authentic specimens of all the forms at hand, and nowhere 

 do the perplexities seem greater than with the species inhabiting the area of which we 

 treat. The principal difficulty consists in the fact that several of the described species 

 are said to occur in the same localities, and are based upon characters which seem van- 

 ishing in a large series. Thus R. japonica and R. martensi are presumably botii from 

 central Japan, yet in no publication have I been able to find their characters contrasted. 

 In a vague way it is intimated that the former is more nearly related to R. dalmatina 

 (=agilis Thomas), the latter to R. temporaria, but that is in itself but scant consolation 

 inasmuch as both R. japonica and martensi agree with R. temporaria in the character in 

 which it is stated that the latter differs from R. dalmatina. That I am not the only 

 herpetologist disconcerted by this state of affairs is plain from Dr. O. Boettger's remarks 

 upon a number of specimens from Chinhai, northeast of Ningpo, China (Ber. 

 Senckenberg. Natiu-f. Ges., 1894, pp. 146-147), which he refers to the three species R. 

 amurensis, martensi, and japonica in spite of a number of discrepancies between the 

 specimensandthedescriptions, which, it seems to me, break down the barriers between 

 them. 



