1918.] 



N. Annandale : Tadpoles from S. India. 



23 



Measurements of a specimen which has the hind limbs fairly well- 

 developed : — 



Total length 



Length of head and body 

 Breadth of head and body 

 Depth of body . 

 Greatest depth of tail 



mm. 

 62 

 24 

 15 



9 



S 



The inner metatarsal tubercle on the feet makes its appearance 

 at an early stage and is spade-like and very conspicuous, being almost 

 white while the sole of the foot is black. 



The pectoral girdle, which has been dissected out from a nearly 

 adult tadpole by Mr. C. R. Narayan Rao, closely resembles that of 

 Leptodactylus,^ except that the sternum is poorly developed, and the 

 frog possibly belongs to the Cystignathidae as we suggested in the 

 paper cited. It is improbable that it belongs to any species of which 

 the adult has been described, and new genus of the family as recorded 

 from India. I thought at first that it was the larva of Nyctibatrachus 

 major, ^ but have since received a series of tadpoles and young frogs of 

 that species in hardly good enough condition for description. They 

 are quite different. In some respects this tadpole bears a close resem- 

 blance to that of Heleophryne natalensis. a South African Cystignathid 

 recently described by J. Hewitt.^ It differs from those of Bufo 

 penangensis^ and Bufo asper^, both of which have greatly enlarged lips 

 modified to form an organ of adhesion, in that both the lips are 

 equally enlarged, instead of the lower lip being much the greater of 

 the two. The tadpoles in the collection of the Indian Museum were 

 collected in September, 1914 ; they were found clinging to rocks by 

 means of their oral suckers in rapid-running streams in the neighbour- 

 hood of waterfalls. The larvae of H. natalensis were observed in similar 

 situations in the valley of the Krantz KlofF in October, 1912. 



Specimens of LARyAE in the collection of the Indian Museum : — 



17709. Kavalai, 1,300-3,000 ft.. Cochin S ate . 



17719. Parambikulam, 1,700-3,200 ft., Cochin State [ {F. H. Gravely). 



17720. Forest Tramway, mi. 10-14, 0-300 ft., Cochin) 



I 



1 See Boulenger, Cat. Batr. Sal. Brit. Mus. p. 238, fig. (1882). 



2 My Rana travnncorica {Eec. Ind. Mus. V, p. 191 : 1910) is synonymous with N. major. 



3 Ann. Natal 3his. II, p. 478, pi. xxxix, figs. 5, 6, 7 (1913). 



* Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1899, p. 909, pi. Ix, figs. 3, 3a. 

 ^ Van Kanipen, Nat. Tijd. Ned. Ind. LXIX, p. 30, pi. ii, fig. 2. 



