VII. FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON RANA TIGRINA. 



By G. A. BouLENGER, LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S., and 

 N. Annandale, D.Sc, F.A.S.B. 



1. REMARKS ON RANA TIGRINA AND ITS VARIETIES. 



By G. A. BoULENGER. 



{Published by permission of the Trustees of the British M.usev)H.) 



Needless to say, I have been keenly interested in reading Dr. Annan- 

 dale's attempt to solve the problem of the species, the races or varieties 

 I should call them, that have been grouped together under the name 

 of Rana tigrina} 



I cannot help thinking that with a more extensive material, Dr. 

 Annandale would have reached somewhat different conclusions, and 

 the object of these notes is to show on what points his definitions require 

 emendation. I will first discuss the various ' species ' under the names 

 assigned to them by him, and in the same order, and then wind up with 

 my own definition of R. tigrifia and of the varieties into which it may be 

 divided. 



Rana tigrina, Daud. 



There can be no doubt as to the application of this name in the 

 restricted sense, and on this point we are in agreement. But I am sur- 

 prised not to find any allusion to the two forms, strikingly different in 

 their extremes, which are found in India and Ceylon. Dr. Annandale 

 tells us that the inner metatarsal tubercle varies greatly in size and shape, 

 a variation which, according to him, seems to be individual rather thau 

 racial, but he appears to me to be mistaken when he adds that this 

 variation is not correlated with other differences and that it occurs at 

 many or all points in the geographical range of the species. The two 

 forms which I think should be distinguished are : — 



(1) The typical R. tigrina, with smaller and blunter inner meta- 

 tarsal tubercle (If to 3 times in length of inner toe, 7| to 12| times in 

 length of tibia), ' habit rather slender than stout, but moderate rather 

 than extreme in either direction,' and ' the tibia about half as long as 

 head and body.' 



(2) The much stouter, often more toad-like R. crassa, Jerdon (fodiens, 

 Peters nee Jerdon, ceylanica, Peters) with very large, shovel-shaped 

 inner metatarsal tubercle (1 to 1| times in length of inner toe, 5 to 7 

 times in length of tibia), and the tibia 2f to 2A times in length of head 

 and body. Further, when the hind limbs are folded at right angles to 

 the body, the heels overlap in the former but do not in the latter ; the 

 tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the eye or between the eye and the nos- 

 tril in the former, the tympanum or the eye in the latter. 



1 Mem. As. Soc. Bengal, VI, p. 121 (1917). 



