HYLIDAE 205 



tip of an overhanging leaf, and climbed into it. Both male and 

 female held the edges of the leaf together, near the tip, with their 

 hind- legs, while the female poured her eggs into the funnel 

 thus formed, the male fertilising them as they passed. The 

 ielly in which the eggs were laid was of sufficient firmness to 



J J OO 



hold the edges of the leaf together. Then moving up a little 

 further, more eggs were laid in the same manner, the edges 

 of the leaf being fastened together by the hind-legs, and so on up 

 the leaf until it was full. As a rule, two briar-leaves were filled 

 in this way, each containing about 100 eggs. The time occupied 

 in filling one leaf was three-quarters of an hour. 



Development proceeds rapidly. Within six days the embryo 

 increases from the 2 mm. of the egg-diameter to 9 or 10 mm. 

 When it leaves the leaf it is a transparent glass-like tadpole, whose 

 only conspicuous parts are the eyes. These are very large and 

 of a bright metallic green colour, so that when swimming in the 

 water all that is seen is a pair of jewel-like eyes. The newly- 

 hatched tadpole has also a bright metallic spot between the 

 nostrils somewhat in front of the pineal spot. This is the point 

 which touches the surface of the water when the tadpole is in its 

 favourite position. Whether it is a protective coloration, or 

 some mechanical arrangement for holding the surface, Budgett 

 could not make out. 



The egg contains a great amount of yolk ; the rest of the 

 jelly-like contents of the egg becomes fluid, so that towards 

 the end of embryonic life the larva comes to lie quite freely 

 within a membranous capsule. The external gills appear 

 on the third day, and reach their greatest size on the fifth, 

 when these bright red filamentous organs extend beyond 

 the vent. By the time the tadpoles are ready to be hatched 

 these gills have quite disappeared, there is a median spiracle, 

 and the lungs are shining through the transparent body- 

 wall. Five weeks later, i.e. six weeks after the eggs were laid, 

 the tadpole is 8 cm. long, glossy green above, rosy and silvery 

 below, and the hind-limbs protrude. The young frog at the 

 close of its metamorphosis is two-thirds the length of the adult, 

 and at this time acquires the red flanks barred with black. 



The first account of the breeding of Phyllomedusa was 

 given by v. Ihering 1 concerning Ph. ilieringi of Southern Brazil. 



1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) xvii. 1886, p. 461. 



