J'llK ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF xNATURAL HISTORY. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 

 No. 45. SEPTEMBER 1891. 



XXIII. — Remarks on tlie Structure of the Hand in Pi[);i 

 and Xcnopus. By Dr. I J ECTOR F. E. JuNGERSE^^, of 

 Copenhagen. 



In examining the hands of tlie two above-named Batrachians, 

 it will soon be obvious that the distinctly pronounced differ- 

 ence between the dorsal and volar sides met with in other 

 Anurans is here obliterated ; in both genera the tubercles 

 and warts usually characterizing the volar surface are 

 absent. This fact, together with the great similarity of 

 the fingers, renders it difficult to understand the hand cor- 

 rectly, as at first sight the inner fingers are undistinguish- 

 able from the outer, and it is not clear which is the upper and 

 which the lower side. From the following it will api)ear that 

 hitherto all observers oi Pipa and most observers of Xenopus 

 have been misled and have misinterpreted the hand in these 

 animals in one or both respects. 



As is well known, the hand in all Anurans has four 

 fingers (II-V), the two innermost of which (II and III) 

 in nearly all the Phaneroglossa are provided with two 

 phalanges, the two outer with three * ; also in Aglossa 



* Exceptions were first pointed out by IV-ters (Reise ricach Mos.<ambique, 

 iii.l8S2),aud lately Eouleiiger(" Note on tlie Classification of the Ranidaj," 

 Ann. t£; Ma<j. N. Ilist. Ser. 6. Vol. viii. I'd 



