64 



Records of the Indian Mnseuvi. 



[YoL. XV, 



Barbour, 1 scarce. Dr. van Kampen paid great attention to the Batrachian 

 larvae of the island when resident there for some years and it seems to 

 me improbable that a tadpole so peculiar as that of the R. tvjrina type, 

 had it been at all common, would have escaped his notice. Moreover, 

 Dr. Malcolm Smith of Bangkok has sent me tadpoles from Siam that 



3a. 



Figs. 3, 3a. — Tadpole of B. cancrivora from Siarn (x2), with mouth-disk further 

 enlarged. 



conform, with minor differences, to the R. limnocJiaris type, and which 

 he identifies as those of R. cancrivora. About them he writes : — 



" The specimens that I sent you last week are I think without 

 doubt cancrivora. My men brought in a large number from 

 the mouth of the Chumpon River (P. Siam), where the frog 

 was common, and with young ones just leaving the water 

 from which I have made the diagnosis. They differ from 

 van Kampen's description only in the 3rd or lowest tooth 

 row of the lower lip. In cancrivora this is nearly or quite as 

 long as the row above, whilst in limnocharis it is only half 

 the length. Koh Lah specimens confirm this, but I will get 

 some living tadpoles and confirm the frog." ^ 



The chief differences between these tadpoles and the larvae of R. 

 limnocharis are that (1) the dorsal membrane of the tail is much less 

 sinuate in outline ; (2) the tail is shorter and less pointed, and (3) the 



1 Memoirs of the Muaeurn of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol. XLIV, 

 No. 1, p. 65. 



2 Dr. Smith has recently (October 10th, 1917) sent me the following additional 

 note : — " There is other evidence, however, by which I am quite sure that B. rugnlosa 

 and B. cancrivora are distinct. Their breeding calls are entirely different. That of the 

 former is a deep " wrnk, wrnk, wrnk (WRNK) " of the latter a loud bleat, something 

 like the noise })roduced by a goat. 1 have kept them both and am sure on this ])<)int." 

 I understand that Dr. Boulenger now accepts B. cancrivora as distinct. Dr. Smith 

 [Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc, Siam II, 264) has just published a note on the tadpole. 



