Native Frogs.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 642, 21 December 1932, Page 8

Native Frogs.

Nature Notes.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. ABOUT TWENTY YEARS AGO, Mr A. C. Jameson, Fort Street, Auckland, while visiting Coromandel Peninsula, was fortunate enough to find, on the eastern slopes of Tokatatea, several individuals of New Zealand’s species of rare little native frog, Liopelma Hochstetteri, dedicated to Dr Ferdinand von Hochstetter, naturalist on the Austrian sloop Novara, which included New Zealand in a long voyage in the early days. Mr Jameson caught sixteen, but liberated thirteen, because of the rarity of the species. The remaining three he sacrificed to science, giving them to the Auckland Museum, where they were converted into specimens. None of the sixteen was larger than a walnut. The skins, which were brown, were covered on the upper surface with little lumps, or warts, and there were horizontal, light yellowish-brown bars on the front and on the backs of the legs. When swimming they struck out with their hind legs alternately, the front legs held close to the head, the hands open, palms down. As he found none actually in the water, he concluded that the species is less aquatic than the common large green Australian frogs, which have spread all over New Zealand, croaking loudly at night. They seemed to prefer the shady sides of damp and mossy stones. Mr Jameson conjectured that their chief food was ants and the eggs and young of ants, as in most cases he found two or three frogs near ants’ nests. This species of frog has been reported from only the Coromandel Peninsula, Manukau Harbour, Opotiki, and a few other places in the North Island. The only other native New Zealand species, Liopelma Hamiltoni, has been reported from only Stephen Island, Cook Strait. Both species belong to a small group of frogs that live in New Zealand, Europe, Africa and Asia, but not Australia. Their closest allies are in China.