95 



■'mi^] BARBOUR — SOLOMON ISLAND REPTILES 



the suppression of the family Ceratobatrachidae, as being based 

 on insufficient grounds, although it must be confessed that it is 

 at present hard to suggest any very close relatives for this most 

 curious form or to postulate its immediate ancestor. As the 

 family is monotypic no unnatural assemblage is possible. Van- 

 kampen ' proposes to consider this a subfamily, which is per- 

 haps a convenient solution. 



Batrachylodes vertebralis Boulenger 

 Batrachylodes vertebralis Boulenger, P. Z. S., 1887, p. 337, pi. 28, fig. 3. 



Three specimens from Marova Lagoon, New Georgia Island, 

 Solomon Islands. ^ 



Of these one example, a male, is marked as is Boulenger s 

 figure (P. Z. S., 1887, p. 387, pi. 28, fig. 3); the other two, one 

 a male also, are marked very differently. In one the dorsum is 

 dark brown, with no light mid-vertebral stripe, and with the 

 sides dirty yellowish, and below this another dark zone and then 

 the belly creamy yellow. In the third example the colors are 

 reversed; the dorsum is dirty yellowish, quite immaculate, the 

 sides dark but flecked with lighter spots, while the belly is 

 creamy yellow. In all three the throats are somewhat suffused 

 with dusky gray. Another noteworthy character, which is not 

 mentioned by Boulenger (his unique type was a female), is that 

 in our three examples, which all are males, the snout is projected 

 anteriorly at the tip and sHghtly thickened at the Hp margin, 

 very much as is sometimes seen in Leptodadylus albilahns. 

 What may be the significance of this modification, I do not 

 know. In Leptodadylus it does not seem to be a sex-linked 

 character (cf. Bull. M. C. Z., 63, 1920, p. 406). This, however, 

 does not mean that it may not be such a character m Batrachy- 

 lodes. In this genus it is less conspicuous, but nevertheless it 



1 Die Amphibienfauna von Neu-Guinea; Fest-nummer. Bijd tot de Dierkunde, Kon. 

 Zool.Genoots " Natura Artis Magistra; part 21, Amsterdam, 1919, p. 51. 



