FROGS OF SOUTHEASTERN BRAZIL — COCHRAN 215 



this species, but in a few individuals it is especially long, so that the 

 heels fail to meet by a considerable interval when the hind legs are 

 bent at right angles to the body. The webs of the toes are more 

 deeply incised in some than in others. The coloration is occasionally 

 dark, so that the dorsal spots fail to show. The head is wide and the 

 snout relatively blunt and short in a few frogs. The chest and belly 

 are sometimes immaculate; often the throat is spotted with round 

 black dots, and more rarely the belly also is similarly marked. The 

 described specimen is the largest one at hand. 



Remarks. — While the terminal bone of the toe is distinctly cylin- 

 drical and rounded at the tip, it is prolonged by a very tough, round 

 cartilaginous plate which attaches itself to the outer skin and which is 

 very difficult to dissect away from the bone. 



The voice of this frog sounds like the grunting of a pig, or like a 

 cough, and may be heard in the daytime. The frog is almost entirely 

 aquatic, and floats at the surface of the water. It begins to breed in 

 September as soon as the rains come. The tadpoles are large in size 

 and are eaten by the natives. The adult frogs are said to be caught in 

 the daytime on fish hooks baited with grasshoppers. 



The characters separating P. bolbodadyla from P. paradoxa seem to 

 be very slight. The tips of the fingers and toes are about equally 

 bulbous in both species. The former, however, has a rougher skin on 

 the back, and the upper eyelid is somewhat Avider, making the inter- 

 orbital diameter seem narrower. Three examples of paradoxa from 

 Georgetown, British Guiana, MZUM 46 16 1 and 83855, are smoother 

 above, while the eyelid is less full. In these the black stripes on the 

 thighs are relatively narrow, and very irregular in outline; in the large 

 series of bolbodadyla the stripes are wider and their margins are quite 

 regular. In paradoxa the light ventral color is not carried up to the 

 axilla and onto the shoulder to any appreciable extent ; in bolbodadyla 

 a more or less distinct band of pale color encircles the posterior half 

 of the shoulder. A specimen from Riu-renabaque, Bolivia, MZUM 

 57527, seems to have the bolbodadyla color characters, and its upper 

 eyelid is also large and full, but until an adequate series from Bolivia 

 has been secured, this specimen is referred only provisionally to 

 bolbodadyla. 



Specimens examined 

 BRAZIL: 



EspfRiTo Santo: ltd, IB 193. 



MiNAS Gerais: Lagoa de Genipapo, Lassance, USNM 97022 (cotype), A. Lutz, 

 Lag6a do Curralhino, near Lassance, USNM 97171-204, Cochran, Dias, and 

 Venancio, Mar. 22, 1935. Pirapora, USNM 98534, Cochran, Dias, and 

 Venancio, Mar. 23, 1935. 



