34 J(jurn;il of Entomology and Zoology 



lectcd was kept separate and the data as to its time and place of collection were 

 recorded. This data can be found under the discussion of the individual species. 

 My part in the collecting was during the season of 1916, and during the following 

 fall and winter the material was examined. 



As complete information as possible was secured as to the stage of transforma- 

 tion; the length of the tail, condition of the mouth, length of the alimentary canal, 

 its differentiation into stomach, small and large intestines, and the development of 

 the front legs — all these facts were noted. Unfortunately at first the desirability of 

 so complete a record was not realized and the bullfrog, which was the first species 

 studied, did not receive as full treatment as those taken up later. 



After the alimentary canal had been removed and its length had been measured, 

 the contents were removed and identified. In many cases, prhaps a more exact 

 determination of the forms found could have been carried out by specialists, but the 

 kind of food rather than the exact species seemed the essential thing. For this reason 

 a not very serious attempt was made below the identification to family, especially 

 where digestion had proceeded to any extent. 



WORK PREVIOUSLY DONE 



Some very thorough investigation has been carried out on the food of the adults 

 of several species, in America the most notable being that of Kirkland on the Ameri- 

 can toad, and of Drake on the meadow-frog. Kirkland' in an examination of 149 

 load stomachs which had been collected in a number of situations, found that by 

 bulk 98'f of the food examined was animal, that 77'/r was made up of insects and, 

 that of the insect food 11' I was of beneficial forms, 22'/ neutral and bl''i injurious. 

 He made note, too, of the fact that the toad feeds largely at night and that in a single 

 twenty-four hours it can fill its stomach to its complete capacity four limes. He said, 

 too, that the toad takes only living and moving forms; this fact is one repeated 

 by other observers for other species of the Anura and agrees with my own results. 

 As an example of the evident attractive power a moving object has for an .\nuran I 

 may mention a specimen in the Museum of the University of Denver. It is a toad 

 probably of the Woodhouse variety, which was brought in dead and dried up and 

 with the lip of a turkey wing projecting from the mouth. It had evidently been 

 attracted by the small bunch of feathers being blown about and, having swallowed a 

 part was not able to finish the process nor to disgorge because of the barbs of ihe 

 feathers catching in Ihe throat. 



From the tables given by Kirkland one is led to infer that practically no a(|ualic 

 forms enter into the load's diet, a not very surprising fact when its terrestrial habits 

 are remembered. Since many a(|ualic insects are attracted lo electric lights, it is 

 evident that a load or frog feeding under the corner arc light can secure such forms 

 without ever approaching water. 



'Kirkl.in.1, .\. II.. 1897. Habits, food .nn.l icmoniic v.ilvic of the .\nicrican toa.l. (Bull. A6 

 of Hatch hxp. Station of the Mass. ARric. College. 1904.) Usefulness of llic American toad. 

 (Karmen Bull. 196, U. S. llcpt. of Agricullurr.) 



