Zoology.} NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Reptiles. 



Plate 42, Fig. 1. 



LYMNODYNASTES TASMANIENSIS (Gunth.). 



The Spotted Marsh-Frog. 



[Genus LYMNODYNASTES (Fitzinger). (Sub-kingd. Vertebrata. Class Reptilia. Order 

 Batrachia. Sub-Order Anoura. Fam. Cystignathidse.) 



Gen. Char. — General form broad and short ; head moderate ; limbs rather short ; fingers 

 quite free ; hind toes free, or very slightly webbed ; skin smooth, or with scattered, depressed 

 tubercles ; with or without large gland on hind leg ; tubercles under metatarsus soft, rounded, 

 without sharp edge ; palatine teeth in a nearly straight transverse band behind the inner nostrils, 

 scarcely interrupted in the middle. Tongue rounded, very slightly notched. Openings of the 

 inner nostrils and of the Eustachian tubes moderate. Tympanum of ear not distinctly visible 

 externally. Males with a vocal sac under the throat. Australia.] 



Description. — Head moderate, semi-elliptical ; snout slightly produced beyond 

 lower jaw, depressed, flat ; nostrils nearer tip of snout than eyes. No large gland 

 on calf of leg. Tongue rounded, with scarcely perceptible notch. Eyes moderate 

 in size and prominence. Metacarpus below with 3 small elongate tubercles (that of 

 the thumb or inner side largest) ; metatarsus below with 2 very small rounded, 

 soft tubercles ; tympanum slightly visible ; surface of back nearly smooth, with 

 scattered, small, slightly prominent, rounded tubercles; two inner fingers with 

 membranous border in adult female; toes very slightly webbed at base, slightly 

 bordered. Color : ground color of upper surface varying from light stone-grey to 

 nearly black, with 3 or 4 rows on each side of elongate, rounded, or oblong patches 

 or spots with jagged edges of sap-green (becoming brown in spirit), each leg with 

 3 or 4 transverse patches of similar shape and color, and smaller spots on arm and 

 feet ; a longer streak of the same color from the snout through the nostril to the 

 eye, and thence tapering to the point of the shoulder ; underside of throat, body, 

 and legs pearly-white ; usually a narrow light stripe along middle of back from tip 

 of snout to posterior end, but often indistinct. A whitish glandular ridge from eye 

 to end of green band near shoulder behind the angle of mouth. Iris golden bronze. 



Reference. — Cat. Brit. Mus. Batrac. Sal, p. 33, t. 11, fig. b. 



This beautiful little species is not uncommon in marshy places 

 and shallow waters about Melbourne, where it forms a favorite 

 food of snakes. At the end of November the young, about 1 inch 

 long, takes to the land, having its four limbs perfect, but with a 

 tail of half an inch long remaining. The diapophyses of the last 

 sacral vertebrae are only slightly widened at their distal ends. 



The color of the spots is erroneously said by Dr. Steindachner 

 (Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara) to be brown, speci- 



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