172 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Persistent search about the banana plants, under the leaves of which 

 adults hide during the day, failed to discover the eggs of this species, 

 and it was not until the writer visited the Luquillo Forest that a single 

 egg-mass was discovered in a basal leaf of an air plant, just at the sur- 

 face of the water in the lower part of the leaf. A large E. auriculatus in 

 the same plant, but not on the same leaf as the eggs, escaped. There 

 are thirty-six eggs, with well-advanced embryos, adhering in an oval mass 

 from which individual eggs are easily detached. The eggs measure 6-8 

 mm. in greatest diameter, being somewhat elongated in the axis of the 

 embryo. 



The young of this species are extraordinarily abundant, and it is diffi- 

 cult to understand why the eggs are so infrequently observed. It is 

 possible that at the time of my visit (August to October) the height of 



the breeding season had passed. The only 

 previously recorded date of breeding is that 

 observed by Gundlach, May 24 (Peters, 1877, 

 Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1876, p. 

 709). Professor Johnson found a mass of 

 eggs on July 8, with embryos at about the 

 same stage as the writer's, in the same bunch 



Fig. 2. — Embryo of EJeuthero- ° , m } 



dactyius auriculatus of moss in which the giant female specimen, 



a. m. n. h. No. 10302. Four mentioned above, was collected. Gundlach 



times natural size. ^ ^ also observed a f emale sitting on 



the egg-mass received by him, while Bello y Espinosa (Martens, 1871, 

 Zool. Garten, XII, p. 351) records that in the case observed by him the 

 parent frog remained in the neighborhood of the eggs "as if to guard 

 them." From these several observations it appears not unlikely that the 

 female does remain in the neighborhood of the eggs until they are 

 hatched, but further observations on this point are desirable. Ruthven 

 (1915, Occas. Papers, Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, No. 11), observing 

 the breeding habits of E. emeritus (Peters) in Colombia, found no evi- 

 dence of such a habit. 



Eleutherodactylus gryllus, new species 

 Sixteen specimens from Maricao and El Yunque were collected. 



Diagnostic Characters 



Distinguished from Eleutherodactylus auriculatus by a shorter snout, 

 less granulate venter, and its minute size. . 



