II. SOME UNDESCRIBED TADPOLES FROM 

 THE HILLS OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 



By N. Annandale, D.Sc, F.A.S.B., Director, Zoological 

 Survey of India. 



(Plate I.) 



With one exception the tadpoles here described were found in the 

 hills of Cochin, in most cases with young frogs of their species, by Dr. 

 F. H. Gravely and Mr. B. Sundara Raj in September, 1914. The tadpole 

 of Nyctihatrachus pygmaeus was, however, obtained by Capt. R. B. S. 

 Sewell, I. M.S., in a small lake in the Nilgiris. The species from Cochin 

 are particularly interesting as illustrating peculiar adaptations in tad- 

 poles that live in hill-streams. 



Rana verrucosa, Glinther. 



(Plate I, figs. 1, la.) 

 Boulenger, Faun. Brit. Ind., Bept., p. 448 (1890). 



The tadpole is small, by no means stout ; the head and body are 

 rather narrowly ovoid and somewhat depressed ; the snout is bluntly 

 pointed and declivous ; the nostrils as seen from above appear to be 

 nearer the tip of the snout than to the eyes ; the distance between them 

 is about half that between the eyes, which are situated on the dorsal 

 surface but directed outwards and are evidently prominent in life. The 

 spiracle is situated a little below the eye, nearer to it than to the 

 posterior end of the body ; it is tubular in form and points backwards 

 and a little upwards. The ventral surface is convex. 



The mouth-disk is very small and of the normal type, directed down- 

 wards and a little forwards, distinctly transverse in form, with a lateral 

 emargination on either iside ; the anterior margin of the upper lip is 

 fringed with teeth and devoid of papillae ; the lateral margins are fringed 

 with papillae, which become rather longer at the sides of the posterior 

 margin ; the middle part of this margin is smooth. The dental formula 

 is 1 : 1 + 1/3. The upper beak is crescentic and slender ; the lower beak 

 broadly V-shaped. The margins of both parts are very minutely 

 serrated ; the basal half of the lower beak is colourless. 



The tail is relatively short and slender, tapering gradually, sharply 

 pointed, with the fin-membranes relatively broad and the upper one 

 commencing on the posterior part of the body. The anus is directed 

 to the right. 



The dorsal surface of the body is blackish, indistinctly mottled and 

 marbled with white ; on the snout and sides the colourless markings 

 are of greater extent and more conspicuous ; a dark spot occurs over 

 each nostril ; the ventral surface is colourless and transparent ; the 

 tail is whitish with conspicuous dark brown spots and irregular mark- 

 ings. 



