Vol. 5, p. 155-156. June 24, 1925 



Occasional Papers 



OF THE 



Boston Society of Natural History. 



A NEW FROG AND A NEW SNAKE FROM PANAMA. 



BY THOMAS BARBOUR. 



Among collections of reptiles and amphibians, made at the 

 Barro Colorado Island Laboratory in Gatun Lake by Messrs. 

 W. S. Brooks, E. Wigglesworth and the writer, are five specimens 

 of a new frog related to a comparatively little-known species, 

 Rana warschewitschii (Schmidt), from Qosta Rica and extreme 

 western Panama. The celebrated Polish explorer, von War- 

 S25ewicz, discovered the types near Chiriqui Volcano, in a moist 

 foggy region about 6000 or 7000 feet above sea level. Appar- 

 ently only the type, probably still in Cracow, was taken and was 

 amply described and reasonably well figured by Schmidt (Denk- 

 schr. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. 14, p. 241, pi. 1, fig. 1-4, 1858). 

 The species was later described as Rana caeruleopunctata by 

 Steindachner and was fully discussed by Boulenger in his Amer- 

 ican Frogs of the Genus Rana (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. 

 55, p. 478, 1920). This frog has a wider range than Boulenger 

 supposed. The type came from the Volcdn de Chiriqui; Dr. 

 E. R. Dunn and Mr. Chester B. Duryea collected a beautiful 

 series at Suretka in the Talamanca Valley, Costa Rica, near the 

 Panamanian border on the Atlantic coastal plain. In 1920, Dr. 

 Dunn found it sparingly at Navarro in Costa Rica, altitude about 

 4000 feet. Boulenger had records for Nicaragua based upon 

 Cope's and Noble's writings, which he cites, and from Bebedero, 

 San Carlos and La Palma in Costa Rica. In discussing Rana 

 caeruleopunctata, Boulenger remarks that while the British Mu- 

 seum had received large collections from Costa Rica it had never 

 received Rana palmipes from that country. The reason for this 

 was that these collections were made in the highlands while 

 Rana palmipes is a species characteristic of the coastal plain. 

 The Museum of Comparative Zoology has specimens from along 

 the Caribbean littoral from Mexico to British Guiana and along 

 the Pacific from eastern Panama and from the interior of Colom- 

 bia, Brazil and Peru. There are examples from Zent, Guapiles, 

 Monteverde and Suretka, Costa Rica, mostly taken by Dr. 

 Dunn during his fruitful explorations. 



The new frog is named in honor of Mr. James Zetek, the dil- 

 igent resident custodian of the Barro Colorado Island Laboratory 

 of the Institute for Research in Tropical America. 



