96 OK SOME TBEB-FEOGS OF BRAZIL. [Feb. 5, 



(vol. xix. p. 462), with a figure, which is now reproduced, by 

 kind permission of the proprietors, together with the original 

 note : — " If I remember well I have already told you of the 

 curious fauna which is to be met with between the leaves of 

 our Bj-omelia;. Lately I found in a large Bromelia a little frog 

 (Hylodes?) bearing its eggs on the back. The eggs were very 

 large, so that nine of them covered the whole back, from the 

 shoulders to the hind end, as you will see in the photograph 

 (see p. 95) accompanying this letter (the little animal was so restless 

 that only after many fruitless trials a tolerable photograph could 

 be obtained). The tadpoles, on emerging from the eggs, were 

 already provided with hind-legs ; and one of them hved with me 

 about a fortnight, when th^: fore-legs also had made their appear- 

 ance. During this time I saw no external branchiae, nor did I 

 find any opening which might lead to internal branchiae." 



Mr. Boulenger, to whom I am indebted for continued help and 

 advice in my attempts to work at Brazilian herpetology, took 

 great interest in the present Tree-Prog, which he has kindly 

 named after me, and described in the ' Proceedings ' of this Society 

 for 1894 (p. 645). 



4. Htla nebttlosa, Spix. 



Hyla luteola, Giinther et Burmeister. 



In the sheaths of old and decaying leaves of banana-trees 

 (Musa) we have often found another Tree-Frog, so often that we 

 have designated it as the Banana-Frog. It is generally brownish 

 above, turning to yellowish in the daylight ; below yellow, with 

 vertical bluish bars on the sides of the thighs. I identify it, not 

 without some hesitation, with H. nebulosa, Spix, as defined by 

 Mr. Boulenger, p. 397 of his ' Catalogue.' 



I have a few words to say on this Tree-Frog, as it presents 

 a fourth mode of oviposition. It glues its lumps of eggs on the 

 edges and on the inside of withered banana-leaves, where, even 

 during the hot hours of the day, sufficient coolness and moisture 

 are preserved. 



These lumps are enveloped in a frothy, whitish substance, 

 comparable to the scum formed by certain Cicadidce, so frequently 

 met with in European meadows. Sometimes the tailed larvae are 

 seen wriggling in this frothy mass. If they be put into fresh water 

 all will die in a few hours. We have many times repeated this 

 experiment, and are convinced that superabundance of water is 

 directly noxious to them. There can be no other explanation but 

 that a quantity of water, covering entirely the lump, intercepts 

 the respiration. 



Herpetologists will find a striking resemblance between my 

 observations on this " Banana-Frog " and those made by Dr. H. von 

 Ihering on the oviposition of Phyllomedusa iheringi \ as described 



* I have found several specimens of a species, not yet identified with certitude, 

 of Fhyllomedusa in the Serra dos Orgaos, but I have not been able to observe 

 the life-history of this interesting and njagaificent Tree-Frog. 



