Annals oe the Transvaal Museum, 
37 
We may now very briefly mention the distribution of those families 
of Anura which do not occur in South Africa nor in Madagascar. 
The Hylidae have their headquarters in South America, but they 
occur also in North America and in Papuasia, whilst a few stragglers of the 
genus Hyla extend from America throughout the palearctic region, south- 
wards into southern China and northern India, and though absent from 
the Malay region (except New Guinea), there are several species of Hyla 
in Australia. It appears therefore that, roughly speaking, Hylidae occur 
in every habitable part of the globe excepting the great Indo- Oceanic 
region as it was immediately subsequent to its separation from Australia. 
The distribution records suggest, that in passing between the old and 
new worlds the genera Hyla and Rana made use of the same land connec- 
tions (prob bly across Baring StrTts), but travelled in opposite directions. 
The Discoglossidae occur in the palaearctic region, North America, 
and in New Zealand, ant ara recorled from mi Idle an 1 upper Miocene of 
Europe, whilst the Pelobatidae occur in North America, Europe, India, 
Ceylon, Malaya, and New Guinea. 
The distribution of the Apoda is particularly interesting from our 
present point of view. These worm -like creatures, which are entirely 
restricted to a burrowing life in damp ground, must have exceedingly 
limited opportunities for dispersal. Major Alcock (A.M.N.H., 1901, 
p. 267) gives the following list : — Out of a total of eighteen genera, 
tropical America has nine genera (seven peculiar) comprised in twenty- 
eight species, West Africa has four genera (two peculiar) with five species, 
East Africa has five genera (four peculiar) with five species, the Seychelles 
have three genera (two peculiar) with four species, and there are four 
genera (two peculiar) comprised in six species in India and South-East 
Asia. One genus, Dermophis, is common to tropical America, West and 
East Africa, the genus Hypogeophis is common to East Africa and the 
Seychelles, Herpele occurs in tropical America, West Africa, and Cachar 
(India), and the genus Uraeotyphlus is known only from Gabun and 
Malabar. It appears that in Africa the Apoda are confined to a broad belt 
of country stretching from east to west in the Equatorial region, and are 
absent altogether from South Africa, Angola, and Mozambique. Con- 
sidering the preponderance of genera and species in the neotropical region it 
seems highly probable that this was the original home of the group and 
that like Xenopus, Bufo, and Nectophryne, the Apoda reached the Ethiopian 
region subsequent to the separation of Madagascar : and it is evident 
that after Madagascar had attained an insular position there still remained 
for some time a land-bridge stretching from East Africa to the Indian region 
and including the Seychelles. 
In the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1905, p. 191, there is a very interesting 
paper by Dr. Gadow on the Mexican Reptiles and Amphibia, where he 
gives an outline of the present and past distribution of the Anura families 
in that part of the world. This has an important bearing on our present 
question, and I therefore give a brief summary of some of the salient facts 
therein stated. During Cretaceous times Central America and Mexico 
were covered by sea, and even by the end of the Eocene period North and 
South America were still completely separated : during Miocene time^, 
