175 



times dark brown ; lips usually with dark spots or vertical 

 bars; limbs with more or less distinct dark brown cross-bars; 

 hinder side of thighs spotted or marbled with black; lower 

 surfaces yellow or pale orange, uniform or spotted with brown. 

 Length 230 mm. 



Omosternum with forked base. Terminal phalanges with 

 slightly expanded tip. 



Male without vocal sacs. 



The food consists of snails, crabs, scorpions and insects 

 (Flower). 



Tadpole. — Length of body about i'/.^ times its width; 

 tail about twice the length of the body, about 4 times as long 

 as deep, the depth of the muscular portion at its base about 

 0,7 the greatest total depth. Nostril about halfway between 

 eyes and end of snout; eyes superior, nearer to the end of 

 the snout than to the spiraculum, the distance between them 

 once and a half to twice that between the nostrils, and slightly 

 greater than the width of the mouth; spiraculum sinistral, 

 directed upwards and backwards, visible from above and from 

 below, nearer to the vent than to the end of the snout; vent 

 dextral, close to the lower border of the subcaudal crest. Tail 

 acutely pointed; upper crest convex, slightly deeper than the 

 lower one, not extending to base of tail. 



Lower lip and sides of upper lip bordered with papillae; 

 jaws broadly edged with black; series of teeth i ' i / i 2 i , the 

 outer row of lower lip very short, the inner one the longest 

 and narrowly interrupted. 



In life light reddish brown above, mottled with darker brown; 

 a dark brown line through the eye, sometimes other dark 

 lines radiating from the eye ; crests of tail colourless, with 

 irregular dark brown vertical bars; belly buff, transparent. 

 Length ^j mm. 



Blanford, Flower and Boulenger distinguish two forms oi Rana 

 niacrodon, the „forma typica" and var. blythii-^\gv. (1920), which 

 are, however, not sharply separated. In the var. blytJiii, after 

 Boulenger, the head is narrower than usually in the typical form ; 

 the eye is usually larger, the canthus rostralis more distinct, the 

 loreal region less oblique ; the tympanum is often smaller (-/g to 

 ^/j the width of the eye, in the typical form V, to ^\^, the toes 

 are often less broadly webbed, the heel is sometimes reaching 

 the tip of the snout (in the forma typica the eye or between 



