1912.] N. Annandale : Batrachia. 31 



is lying among vegetable debris in the corner of little pools, and in 

 the second it assists it to crawl over wet rocks and thus, perhaps, 

 to reach a fresh pool if the one in which it is confined dries up 

 during a period of drought. The first of these secondary functions 

 only comes into play w^hen the funnel is folded. As is shown in my 

 figure in Fasciculi Malayenses, the mouth is well protected by the 

 manner in which the lower part of the apparatus folds upwards 

 over the upper part, but the lateral parts do not completeh^ close 

 together. Each margin bends inwards towards the other in such 

 a way that on each side a narrow tube is formed down which water 

 free from all but very minute fragments of debris is drawn to the 

 mouth by the respiratory movements. 



I have often observed the larvae of M. parva adhering to 

 rocks at the edge of small streams in the K. Himalayas and even 

 making their way up the faces of rocks in this position until at 

 least the anterior part of the body was out of water. Adhesion 

 was brought about very largely by the application of the outer 

 surface of the lower part of the apparatus, which only bears teeth 

 on the inner surface, to the face of the rock; but the ventral 

 surface of the body was applied in the same manner, while the 

 movements of the powerful tail thrust the animal upwards. A 

 small fish {NcinacJdlus rupicola) common in the same little streams 

 actually, as I have m3'self observed, makes its wa3'' over rocks 

 from pool to pool in a very similar manner, adhering partly by 

 means of the smooth skin of its belly and partly by means of its 

 lips. 



Other tadpoles which frequent the streams of the Himalayas, 

 instead of allowing themselves to bs borne away lightly on the 

 surface of the flood, adhere to rocks at the bottom or sides of the 

 stream and have been found firmly fixed even in the immediate 

 vicinity of waterfalls. The majority of the species both of the 

 Darjiling district and of the Abor foot-hills adhere mainly by 

 means of their lips, the inner, tooth-bearing surface of which is 

 applied to the rocks. It is for this reason that in these species the 

 position of the mouth is much more nearly horizontal than it is in 

 many other tadpoles and the lips themselves are more or less en- 

 larged. In such forms as the larva of Rana liehigii the lips, 

 although they are distinctly broader than in the typical Rana 

 tadpole and are directed forwards and backwards respectively 

 instead of both forwards, are not monstrously developed; but in 

 other forms, such as the large unidentified Ranid larva described 

 above, they attain enormous dimensions and form together a 

 powerful sucker possibly rendered necessary by the large size and 

 heavy build of their possessor, for even the lips of the tadpole of 

 R. liehigii enable it to cling tightly. 



In some other species a sucker quite separate from the lips 

 and not homologous with the sucker that many young Batrachia 

 larvae possess, is found on the ventral surface, doubtless for the 

 same purpose. Rana afghana and several allied Himalayo-Malayan 

 frogs have this sucker in their larval stage. 



