FROGS OF SOUTHEASTERN BRAZIL — COCHRAN 333 



Color in life. — From a watercolor of a cotype from Pernambuco: 

 Dorsal ground color pale russet; a clove-brown interorbital spot, 

 followed by a series of spots on the sides; limbs dull pea gi'een, the 

 hind legs heavily crossbarred with sepia, the forearm lightly cross- 

 barred. 



Remarks. — Although only eight examples of this species have been 

 critically measured, its relationship to L. mystacinus in body propor- 

 tions as well as color seems to be established. In head length, L. 

 troglodytes exceeds mystacinus, and, in fact, it exceeds all other Bra- 

 zilian leptodactylids with the exception of L. gracilis, which barely 

 overlaps it. In head width, length of femur, tibia, foot, and hand 

 there is considerable overlapping with mystacinus, and in foot length 

 especially is the agreement significant since aU other leptodactylids 

 have considerably longer feet than do these two. 



A young specimen from Areia Preta is very close to the described 

 specimen in markings, of which some are more distinct on the upper lip, 

 where four nearly square light-bordered brown spots extend from be- 

 neath the eye to tip of snout. The tibia in this frog is a little longer 

 than in the adult from the same locality; its extremely heavy vomerine 

 teeth and large and distinct tympanum, however, as well as other 

 important characteristics, serve to identify it rather definitely. 



The CO types of this species are from Pernambuco, but specimens 

 were later found near Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, where these frogs 

 are abundant but difficult to catch, as they live in very deep holes in 

 the rocks on the margins of salt-water lagoons, although not actually 

 in the ocean. They breed in June or July, probably leaving their eggs 

 in suitable damp places. The voice of the male sounds like the trint- 

 trint-trint-trint of a cricket as he sings from near the water. They are 

 called cassota or cagota in Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco. 

 Their color is similar to that of mystacinus. 



Specimens examined 

 BRAZIL: 



Bahia: BM 69.11.3.23, Cutter. 

 MiNAS Gerais: Rio Pandeiro, USNM 121300. 



Rio Grande do Norte: Areia Preta, USNM 97049, A. Lutz, Aug. 7, 1928. 

 Caminho da Macafba, near Natal, USNM 97048, A. Lutz, July 1928. 



Genus Megaelosia Miranda-Ribeiro 



1923. Megaelosia Miranda-Ribeiro, 1923b, p. 819 (Genotype Elosia bufonia (not 



of GiT&Td) = Hylodes goeldii Baumann.) 

 1931. Megalelosia A. Lutz, pp. 227, 236 (emendation). 



Generic diagnosis. — General form of Elosia with a sexual dimorphism 

 much more accentuated in the difference in size, the female being 



