SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 111 
The history of our knowledge of this species is rather peculiar. It was 
first found by the botanist Charles Wright probably at Monte Verde, whence 
came most, if not all, of his specimens which were described by Cope as from 
“Eastern Cyba.” The species subsequently remained unknown in Cuba for 
many years. In the meanwhile Stejneger in his Herpetology of Porto Rico 
(p. 583 et seq.) had shown that what had for a long time been called martini- 
censis in Porto Rico was really Cope’s auriculatus and since then it has been 
recorded from Haiti. In 1914 one of us (Ramsden) found it again in the moun- 
tains about Guantanamo where it appears to be confined to the “curujéyes” 
or epiphytic bromeliaceous plants —at any rate there; elsewhere it seems very 
rare in Cuba. In 1915, nevertheless, a typical example, not fully adult, however, 
was taken under a decaying log near where the Rio Cuyaguateje passes by the 
foot of the Sierra de Guane, in western Cuba (Barbour). 
Regarding the habits of this little frog, which curiously enough is exces- 
sively abundant in Porto Rico, we cannot do better than to quote Stejneger 
who says: — 
“Although by no means confined to living on or among the trees this species probably 
deserves the name of tree toad more than any of the other species of the genus inhabiting 
these islands. A favorite place of concealment during the day we found to be the axils of the 
leaves of palms and liliaceous plants, but it was also caught under the bark of trees, fallen 
logs, stones, or in crevices in the rocks, clay banks, or in holes in trees. 
“They keep usually quiet during the day, but toward dusk they come out from their 
hiding places, and the island then begins to resound with their call notes. These, I believe 
to be different in the adults and the young. The former utter a loud and rather sonorous 
6-ki’-ki’-ki’, or simply a persistently repeated 6-ki’, 6-ki.... The chorus of soft “pit, pit, pit” 
around our camp in the evening I attributed to these young ones. 
“Living specimens placed in a glass jar adhere to the sides chiefly by their digital pads 
or disks. The belly is flattened against the glass, but there is apparently no special adhesive 
area. 
“The reproduction of this species is most extraordinary in that the young escape from 
the egg a full developed frog without undergoing any tadpole stage or metamorphosis. The 
eggs are usually deposited in the damp axils of an air plant, about 20 to 30 in alump. The 
development of the young in the egg is remarkable for the fact that the anterior and pos- 
terior limbs appear simultaneously and that there is no trace of gills. In about three weeks 
the young escape from the egg, the only sign of immaturity being a short rudiment of tail, 
which is absorbed, however, in a few hours. The discovery of this extraordinary batrachian 
development, which so strongly foreshadows that of the amniote vertebrates, was made by 
Dr. Bello y Espinosa in 1870, and has been confirmed and elaborated by Gundlach and 
Peters.” (StEJNEGER, Rept. U. S. N. M. for 1902, 1904, p. 587-588). 
