PHEYNBLLA. 265 



night, the males' croak being very loud and audible at a consider- 

 able distance. The males croak while floating on the surface of 

 the water, tlie head and inflated sides of the body just above the 

 surface, the vocal sac swollen out like a globe and the limbs ex- 

 tended. They can hop well on laud, and are probably good 

 burrowers, as the shape of the inner metatarsal tubercle indicates. 

 Feeds on insects, chiefly termites. AVhen pairing, the embrace 

 is axillary : the eggs are expelled in masses of the size of a 

 cherry and the development is very rapid. The fully developed 

 tadpole has not been described. 



Genus PHRYNELLA. 

 Bouleng. Ann. & Mag-. Nat. Hist. (5) xix, p. 346 (1887). 



Pupil horizontal, Tongue cordifoi'm, free behind. Vomerine 

 teeth none. No ridges across the palate. Tympanum hidden. 

 Fingers free, toes extensively webbed ; tips of fingers and toes 

 dilated ; outer metatarsals united. No prajcoracoids ; sternum 

 cartilaginous. Diapophyses of sacral vertebra moderately dilated. 



Two species : — 



Toes at least three fourths webbed ; subarticular 



tubercles of lingers large and flattish P. pulchra, 



Toes hardly half-webbed : subarticular tubercles ver}' [p. 265. 

 large and prominent ; male with a strong tubercle- 

 like rudiment of pollex P.pollicaris, 



[p. 266. 



284. Phrynella pulchra. 



Bouleng. t. c. pi. x.iig. 2 (1887) ; Isenschmidt, Mitth. Naturf. Ges. 

 Bern, 1903, p. 12, pi. v, fig. 1. 



Habit stout. Head small, witli short, truncate, projecting 

 snout ; interorbital space much broader than upper eyelid. Fingers 

 depressed, dilated into large subtriangular disks ; first finger 

 shorter than second ; subarticular tubercles very large and flat. 

 Toes three fourths or nearly entirely webbed, feebly dilated at the 

 end ; a small, oval, flat inner metatarsal tubercle. The tibio- 

 tarsal articulation reaches the temple or nearly the posterior 

 border of the eye. Skin smooth, or with small flat warts on the 

 sides and hinder part of the back. Brown above, with symmetrical 

 darker spots, some of which are edged with a pink line; throat 

 and lower surface of foot brown; belly, groin, and hinder side of 

 thighs yellowish ; vent in a large dark brown spot, separated from 

 the dark colour of the back and the upper surface of the thighs 

 by a band of the yellowish colour of the lower surface. Male 

 with an internal gidar vocal sac. 



From snout to vent 42 millim. 



First described from Malacca. Has since been found in Sumatra 

 and the Mentawei Islands. 



