Terrestrial Breeding Research Articles

Pattern Variation in the Frog Eleutherodactylus nubicola Dunn

An analysis is made of the color pattern variation in the Jamaican frog, Eleutherodactylus nubicola Dunn. A basic pattern, Mottled, may be overlaid by no less that six modifying patterns as follows: Dorsolateral stribes, Middorsal stripe, Broad middorsal stripe, Picket, Interocular bar, and Pelvic spots. It is possible to have more than one of these modifying patterns present in a single individual; one specimen had, at one and the same time, Dorsolateral stripes, Middorsal stripe, and Picket. Evidence is presented that these modifying patterns are inherited in a mendelian manner and Dorsolateral stripes and Middorsal stripe seem to be dominant. Evidence is not yet available that will permit us to determine if the other pattern modifiers are dominant or recessive. It is pointed out that certain Rhacophoridae from Ceylon and Microhylidae in the Papuan region not only have developed terrestrial breeding habits like those of Eleutherodactylus, but that they have several of the pattern modifications described for E. nubicola, The significance of the parallelism is at present unknown.