FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   >>  
es when the frogs were found active in the course of the present study from 1950 to 1955 were in April every year; the 20th, 25th, 24th, 2nd, 25th, and 21st. Latest dates when the frogs were found in the six years of the study were: October 22, 1949; October 13, 1950; October 7, 1951; August 24, 1952; August 18, 1953; and October 27, 1954 (excluding two late stragglers caught in a pitfall on December 5). Severe drought caused unseasonably early retirement in 1952 and 1953. Body temperatures of the frogs were taken with a small mercury thermometer of the type described by Bogert (1949: 197); the bulb was used to force open the mouth and was thrust down the gullet into the stomach. To prevent conduction of heat from the hand, the frog was held down through several layers of cloth, at the spot where it was discovered, until the temperature reading could be made. This required approximately five seconds. [Illustration: FIG. 1. Temperatures of ant-eating frogs grouped in one-degree intervals; upper figure is of frogs found active in the open, and lower is of those found under shelter. The frogs are active over a temperature range of more than 20 degrees, and show no clear cut preference within this range.] Most of the 79 frogs of which temperatures were measured, were found under shelter, chiefly beneath flat rocks. The rocks most utilized were in open situations, exposed to sunshine. Most of the frogs were in contact with the warmed undersurfaces of such rocks. Forty-three of the frogs, approximately 54.5 percent, were in the eight-degree range between 24 deg. and 31 deg. C. Probably the preferred temperatures lie within this range. The highest body temperature recorded, 37.6 deg. C., was in a frog which "froze" and remained motionless in the sunshine for half a minute after the rock sheltering it was overturned. Probably its temperature was several degrees lower while it was sheltered by the rock. Other unusually high temperatures were recorded in newly metamorphosed frogs found hiding in piles of decaying vegetation near the edge of the pond, on hot afternoons of late August. Temperatures ranged from 17.0 deg. to 30.7 deg. in frogs that were found actually moving about. Several with relatively low temperatures, 22 deg. to 17 deg., were juveniles travelling in rain or mist on cool days. These frogs, having relatively low temperature, were sluggish in their movements, as compared with individuals at the upper end of th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   >>  



Top keywords:

temperature

 

temperatures

 
October
 

August

 

active

 

recorded

 

sunshine

 
shelter
 

degrees

 

approximately


Temperatures

 

degree

 

Probably

 
undersurfaces
 
percent
 

warmed

 

chiefly

 
beneath
 

individuals

 

measured


compared
 

exposed

 
preferred
 

situations

 

sluggish

 

movements

 

utilized

 

contact

 

travelling

 
decaying

vegetation

 

hiding

 

metamorphosed

 
Several
 

moving

 
ranged
 
afternoons
 

unusually

 

remained

 
juveniles

highest

 
motionless
 
sheltered
 

overturned

 

sheltering

 

minute

 

eating

 
unseasonably
 
retirement
 

caused