NOTES ON THE ROBBER FROG 
(LITHODYTES LATRANS COPE).* 
JoHN K. Srrecker, JR. 
The Robber Frog, Lithodytes latrans, is one of the most 
peculiar and little known of the frog-like amphibians 
inhabiting the State of Texas. Discovered by Mr: G. W. 
Marnock, near Helotes, Bexar County, in 1878, and de- 
scribed in the same year by Cope,’ it is still a rare species 
in collections. In 1899, the present writer discovered its 
presence at Waco, nearly 200 miles north of the type 
locality, in a rather different faunal region. 
Iithodytes latrans has in all probability an extensive 
range, but, on account of its peculiarly secretive and noc- 
turnal habits, has been overlooked by the most eminent 
herpetologists who have visited Texas. Its distribution 
is entirely dependent on the presence of the exposures of 
white limestone which enclose many of the streams of the 
central and southern sections of the State. 
It is a land animal, hiding in caves and fissures during 
the daytime, and, excepting during the brief breeding 
period, venturing abroad only at night. Breeding in wa- 
ter-filled pockets and hollows in the rocks and in the 
rocky beds of small streams, it does not appear to be per- 
fectly at home in the water at any time and specimens ob- 
served by me made no attempt to conceal themselves by 
diving but swam clumsily. across small pools and sought 
to escape by leaping up the bank on the opposite side. A 
breeding pair remain in copula close in to the bank. The 
masses of water-soaked leaves which line the edges of 
the pools and hollows serve them for the purpose of float- 
ing their fertilized eggs. 
* Presented by title to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, May 2, 1910. 
1 American Naturalist, 1878 : 186. 
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