THE PHILIPPINE 
H>4 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
VOL. 16 MARCH, 1920 No. " 
PHILIPPINE AMPHIBIA 
By Edward H. Taylor 
Of the Bureau of Science, Manila 
TEN PLATES AND NINE TEXT FIGURES 
INTRODUCTION 
The Philippines are rich in species of Amphibia, no less than 
sixty-six being treated in this work, which are, probably, not 
more than three-fourths of the species that exist in the Islands. 
Borneo has about 80 known species; New Guinea, 70; Sumatra, 
42 ; Java, 47 ; Japan and Formosa together, about 50. 
No extensive collection of Amphibia has been made in the 
Philippine Islands, and many of the larger islands have not a 
single record for specimens. Palawan and Mindanao appear to 
be better known than Luzon or the Visayan or Sulu groups. 
Very meager collections have been made in Samar, Leyte, and 
Mindoro, and apparently none have been made in Bohol, Cebu, 
or Panay. 
LOCAL NAMES 
Frogs and toads, with the exception of a rare caecilian in 
Palawan, constitute the known Amphibia of the Philippines; 
they are known in the Islands under the Spanish names rana 
and saj)o, and in the Philippine dialects, under a wide range 
of generic names. The best known are palacd (Tagalog), tala- 
pang and cahacah (Bicol), panca (Negros Visayan), and haqui 
(Leyte Visayan). Very few persons differentiate the various 
species; thus, in the Tagalog dialect three names are applied to 
the various species; these are palacang-saguing for Polypedates 
leucomystax, palacang-bato for Kaloula picta, and palacd applied 
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