216 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
laid eggs.® When the larvse are hatched, the gills are lost and 
the young take to the water; but occasionally they come to the 
surface to breathe. This species attains almost adult size while 
still in the larval stage, but apparently it does not breed until 
the adult form is reached. Finally the gill slit closes and the 
fin on the tail disappears, the animal becoming a burrowing land 
creature ; it is said to drown very quickly when placed in water. 
There is no authentic record of the occurrence in the Philip- 
pines of the true salamanders. I obtained eggs attached to rocks 
in running water in a small stream on Mount Maquiling, Luzon, 
which had the appearance of salamander eggs; but, having no 
preserving fluid at hand, I was unable to make the study re- 
quisite to determine them before they had disintegrated. 
Philippine frogs have various methods of laying their eggs. 
For the most part the eggs are laid directly in the water. Here 
the eggs hatch, and the young pass through a larval stage of 
varying duration, in which stage the large finlike Jtail develops, 
but there are no legs. At this time they are known as tadpoles. 
Later they emerge from the water with four developed legs, a 
miniature replica of the adult, the tail having disappeared. 
Certain species, notably Polypedates leucomystax (the banana 
frog, palacang-saguing) , lay their eggs in a mass of froth or 
foam deposited along the edges of small pools of water, on reeds 
or plants growing in the water, or on an overhanging bough of 
a tree at some distance above water. After about three days 
the eggs hatch; and the young emerge from the mass, fall into 
the water, and become free-swimming larvse. The fully trans- 
formed young animal is smaller than the larva, when the latter 
has attained its greatest size. Polypedates pardalis lays its eggs 
in water collected in holes in trees and very rarely, if ever, 
descends to the ground. Polypedates appendiculatus usually de- 
posits its eggs in water collected in the axils of the leaves of wild 
abaca or caladium. In this species the larval stage is very prob- 
ably of shorter duration. 
On the small island of Little Govenen, near Basilan, I observed 
a species of Cornufer. This island, which contains only a few 
hundred square meters of land, has neither standing nor running 
water, even after a heavy rain; yet this species appears to be 
able to maintain itself. It is not improbable that the young 
emerge from the eggs fully transformed, as is known to occur 
in certain extra-Philippine species. 
“ Sarasin, P. and F., Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der ceylonischen Blind- 
wiihle Ichthyophis glutinosa, Erg. Nat. Forsch. auf Ceylon (1887-1890). 
