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-------------------+---------+----------------+----------- September 15 to 22 | 12 | 18.7 +/- .090 | 16 to 20 --------------------+---------+----------------+----------- September 27 to 30 | 37 | 19.3 +/- .055 | 17 to 21.5 --------------------+---------+----------------+----------- October 1 to 7 | 62 | 20.8 +/- .072 | 17 to 24 --------------------+---------+----------------+----------- October 12 to 17 | 49 | 22.3 +/- .092 | 18 to 24 =========================================================== By mid-October, six weeks after metamorphosis, these frogs had increased in over-all length by approximately 50 percent. Having grown a little more than 1 mm. per week on the average, they were approximately intermediate in size between small adults and newly metamorphosed young. The frogs hatched in June were present in relatively small numbers compared with those hatched in August, and were not observed metamorphosing. In late August a sample of 33 judged to belong to the June brood averaged 26.2 (22-28) mm. long. A sample of 39 from the first week of October averaged 28.1 (24.5-32) mm. Frogs of this group thus were approaching small adult size late in their first growing season. Such individuals possibly breed in the summer following their first hibernation, when they are a year old or a little more. Because recaptured frogs were not sacrificed to determine the state of their gonads, the minimum time required to attain sexual maturity was not definitely determined. The available evidence indicates that sexual maturity is most often attained late in the second year of life, at an age of approximately two years. The darkened and distensible throat pouch of the adult male probably is the best available indicator of sexual maturity. [Illustration: FIG. 3. Growth shown by successive samples of young ant-eating frogs of two size groups in late summer and early fall of 1954. For each sample the mean, standard deviation, and range are shown. Lower series are those metamorphosed in late August, and upper series are those metamorphosed in late June.] [Illustration: FIG. 4. Rapid growth of a young female caught in June, July, and August, 1949. Presumably this individual metamorphosed late in the summer of 1948, and at the age of approximately one year it was near small adult size.] Frogs that metamorphose in late summer have little time to grow before hibernating, and still are
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