The small yellow tree frogs, _Hyla microcephala_ and its relatives, are among the most frequently heard and commonly collected frogs in the lowlands of southern México and Central America. The similarities in size, proportions, and coloration of the different species have resulted not so much in a multiplicity of specific names, but in differences of […]

One of the most distinctive phyletic lines among the diverse Neotropical hylid frogs is composed of a group of 40 species placed in the genus _Phyllomedusa_ (Funkhouser, 1957) or in two or three different genera (Goin, 1961; Lutz, 1966). These species differ from all other Neotropical hylids by possessing a vertical, instead of horizontal, pupil. […]

According to the most recent review of the Mexican amphibian fauna (Smith and Taylor, 1948), six genera of leptodactylid frogs occur in México. One other genus, _Pleurodema_, occurs in Lower Central America. Smith and Taylor recognized one species of _Engystomops_, 28 of _Eleutherodactylus_, three of _Leptodactylus_, eight of _Microbatrachylus_, 12 of _Syrrhophus_, and five of […]

The ant-eating frog is one of the smallest species of vertebrates on the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation, but individually it is one of the most numerous. The species is important in the over-all ecology; its biomass often exceeds that of larger species of vertebrates. Because of secretive and subterranean habits, however, its abundance […]

Field studies on hylid frogs in southern México and northern Central America have resulted in the collection of numerous specimens of _Ptychohyla_, a genus of hylid frogs heretofore poorly represented in museum collections. Experience with the living frogs in their natural habitats has been helpful in defining the species and in formulating ideas concerning their […]

Biological exploration of México and Central America has revealed the presence of a diverse fauna, elements of which have undergone speciation in separate areas within the relatively small region. Some genera of amphibians, especially _Eleutherodactylus_ and _Hyla_, are represented by many species having small geographic ranges in México and Central America. Most of the species […]

In 1954, two of us (Jones and Byers) collected reptiles and amphibians in Korea incidental to field studies relating to hemorrhagic fever. The 382 specimens thus obtained were deposited either in the Museum of Natural History of The University of Kansas (KU), or in the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan (UMMZ), and […]

Preparation of a handbook of reptiles and amphibians by the junior author has led to a survey of the collections of these animals at Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia. Numerous locality records of interest and importance have been accumulated there through the efforts of the senior author and a number of his students, particularly […]

Few regions in Middle America are so important zoogeographically as is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, that neck of land connecting North America with Central America, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico by a distance of only about 220 kilometers (airline), and forming a low break between the highlands of México and those […]

In trying to determine the ancestral relationships of modern orders of Amphibia it is not possible to select satisfactory structural ancestors among a wealth of fossils, since very few of the known fossils could even be considered possible, and scarcely any are satisfactory, for such a selection. The nearest approach thus far to a solution […]