The seasonal activity pattern of Cyclophiops semicarinatus was investigated from April 1988 to March 1989. Most snakes were active during warm season (May-October). Cold temperature in winter affected the activity of the snakes negatively, but they did not seem to have a distinct hibernation period. Probably because of the extremely low humidity and high air temperature, the activity of snakes in an orchard (open habitat) fell in July-August and exhibited a bimodal pattern with peaks in June and September. In the forest, there was no dip in activity during summer and snakes exhibited a unimodal activity pattern with a peak in September. The results of collecting dead snakes on the road while driving a car gave an approximation of the active season of this species.

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Four adult toads were kept under outdoor conditions for nine years in order to observe molting behavior. Between spring and autumn, the intervals between molting shortened when the temperature was high. The intervals were shorter in females than in males. The periods between molting lengthened as the toads aged. The molting occurred more frequently on days with increased relative humidity change. Molting most often occurred between 1500h and 2100h. The toads molted two or three times during hibernation. Another observation on one-year-old toads showed that they molted much more frequently.

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Karyotypes of three ranid species from Hong Kong were studied. Amolops hongkongensis, with 2n=26 chromosomes consisting of seven metacentric and six submetacentric pairs in both sexes, has secondary constrictions on the longer arms of pair 7. The species is karyotypically closer to A. ricketti than to species from western China. Rana exilispinosa, also with 2n=26 chromosomes but consisting of eight metacentric and five submetacentric pairs and lacking secondary constrictions in both sexes, is karyotypically similar to R. spinosa and R. shini. This supports the validity of the recently proposed subgenus Quasipaa. Rana livida, again with 2n=26 chromosomes of eight metacentric and five submetacentric pairs, has secondary constrictions on the longer arms of pair 10 and differs from the Anhui population. This species is suggested to be karyologically closer to members of the subgenus Odorrana than to those of Eburana.

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The behavior that I call “waving behavior” in which the male stiffens his body intermittently and the behavior that I call “swinging behavior” in which the female swings her tail were observed at Shimoshozenji in the city of Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture in 1992. Individual reactions to a hand-waved stick were examined. As controls, male reactions to a motionless stick and to a moving but unwaved stick were observed in 1994. The waving male made a single loop with his forelimbs and hindlimbs, but did not grasp the twig, so his body rolled from side to side. This waving behavior rippled the surface of the pond concentrically. Because the swinging female grasped the twig firmly with her forelimbs and hindlimbs, her body did not move at all. No observable ripples were caused by the swinging behavior of the female. Both males and females tended to approach a hand-waved stick. In general the males were unaffected by the control stimuli, so it could be said that the individuals react to a wave. The ratio of the males approaching to a moving stick was higher than that of females. In females the ratio of approaching the wave depended on the time before oviposition; the shorter the time was, the higher the ratio became. I suggest that waving behavior is a form of male courtship.

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