OCR Text |
Show 140 MR. BOULENGER ON A NEW SPECIES OF BUFO. [Mar. 20, adopt the former view, having little doubt that it is outside the range of variation of even so variable a species as Bufo vulgaris. I will call it BUFO FORMOSUS, sp. n. (Plate XXIII.) In its general characters this species agrees with Bufo vulgaris, especially the Japanese form, which it resembles in the large size, the larger head, the perfectly distinct tympanum, and the black markings. But it is distinguished by the following characters :- The tympanum, which is perfectly exposed and circular, is quite as large as the eye, and measures three fourths the greatest diameter of the orbit. The parotoids are much narrower, their width being-contained three times and a half in their length. The hind limb is longer; if it is carried forwards along the body, the metatarsal tubercles reach the centre of the eye in the female, the anterior corner of the same in the male. The fingers and toes are more elongate, and the web between the latter shorter (the specimens were captured during the breeding-season, as is indicated by the male's digital asperities). The first finger being laid against the second, does not extend quite so far as the latter; in B. vulgaris it is the reverse, the first finger extending slightly beyond the second. Upper surfaces brown, washed with carmine; a black lateral band as in B. vulgaris of Japan, bordered above by a yellowish streak; lower surfaces yellowish, the belly and the lower surface of the limbs largely marbled with black; a black line bordering the lower lip. This line is constant in the Japanese specimens of B. vulgaris, absent in the continental specimens. Two specimens, male and female, were collected at Yokohama during the expedition of H.M.S. ' Challenger.' The following dimensions should be compared with the table given in m y monograph of the Palaearctic and Ethiopian species of Bufo (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 570'). 8. 2- millim. millim. From snout to vent 125 112 Length of head 35 31 Breadth of head 51 44 From eye to nostril 8 8 From eye to tip of snout 18 15 Greatest diameter of orbit 12 11 Interorbital space 13 ] 2 Diameter of tympanum 9 8 Length of parotoids 28 21 Breadth of parotoids 8 6 B o d y 90 81 Fore limb 87 80 Hind limb 172 142 Tibia 47 40 1 Column /, " length of head 48 millim." is a misprint for " 38 millim." |