152 
ZOOLOGY OF THE FAR EAST. 
Kaloula pulchra, Gray. 
(Plate VI, figs. 7, 7^, yb). 
Both Butler' and Smith' have observed the oviposition of this species, and the 
latter has described the adult tadpole, but neither appears to have noticed the pecu- 
liar form of the eggs, and neither says anything of the young larval stages. In a 
period of heavy rain at Christmas, 1915, I was able to note several additional points 
in the case of frogs breeding in small pools in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. 
The eggs, though expelled in a mass, do not adhere to one another. If observed 
undisturbed on the surface of water, they appear to form a coherent layer, but if 
stirred up by a stick separate immediately. The 
ova are spherical, having the upper half black 
and the lower half white. Their diameter is 15 
mm. The peculiarity lies in the form of the jelly 
that surrounds each egg. It is perhaps stiffer 
than is usually the case in the eggs of frogs and 
toads, and is not completely spherical; one sur- 
face being flattened on a considerable area. The 
balance of the whole egg is such that this flat- 
tened surface lies immediately below the surface- 
film of the water and that, however the egg may 
be disturbed, it always reassumes the same posi- 
tion almost instantaneously. This seems to be 
advantageous in the case of eggs laid in tem- 
porary pools of rain-water, which are liable to be greatly enlarged or to form part of 
temporary torrents owing to flooding. The eggs, instead of being washed away into 
corners in such circumstances or stranded on dry ground, as would be the case if they 
adhered together to form a solid and heavy mass, float lightly on the surface without 
injury and with very little chance of being stranded. 
I was unable to observe the larva immediately after hatching, but figure 7 
on pi. vi and text-fig. 9 represent one 24 hours old. At this stage the mouth is 
already open, but the anus is still closed and a large amount of yolk still remains in 
the body-cavity. There are about 7 "external " gill-filaments present on each side. 
The larval adhesive apparatus is at different stages in different individuals of this 
age. In the specimen figured it is merely represented by a slight lateral ventral 
prominence on each side, but in smaller tadpoles from the same batch the promi- 
nence is entirely ventral and takes the form of a deeply pigmented conical papilla 
tipped with white. These tadpoles provide no evidence that the structure as a whole 
has ever been V-shaped or that the two papillae have been concave at the tips. It 
does not differ, however, materiahy from the figure of its penultimate stage in R. 
temporaria or R. agilis figured by Thiele ' in his paper on the "Der Haftapparat der 
Fig. q. — Tadpole of Kaloiikt pulclira. 
Dorsal view of head and body of a speci 
men hatched 24 hours ( x 20). 
1 Butler, Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. XV, p. 391. 
2 Smith, Journ. Nat. Hist .Soc. Siam, II, p. 40, pi. — , figs. B1-B3. 
S Thiele, Zeitsch. ttiiss Zonl. XLVI, p. 75, pi. x, fig. 6 (1888). 
