L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 10. 1995 (Budapest, 1995)

Gubányi, A.: Biometrical investigation of water frogs in the Szigetköz Landscape Protection Area

Rana esculenta Fig. 4. Allometric growth rate of morphometric characters for Rana esculenta Frequency distributions of the values of body length, tibia length and first toe length approximately followed the desired normal distribution curve in all cases, except the distribution pattern of first toe length for females of Rana kl. esculenta (Figs 1-2). Frequency distributions of inner metatarsal tubercle length in both species showed, however, zigzag patterns. On the basis of the multiple regression and determination coefficients, considerable correlations were found both between body length and tibia length and between tibia length and first toe length for the two water frog forms (Table 4). Inner metatarsal tubercle length showed on the one hand, a significant correlation with tibia length, on the other hand a moderate correlation with body length in the cases of Rana lessonae specimens. Inner metatarsal tubercle length of Rana kl. esculenta specimens correlated with both tibia length and body length at similar level. An allometric growth rate was found between linear body length and the other linear morphometric characters (Figs 3-4). The growth rate of both tibia length and the first toe length compared to body length was similar. Opposite to the above mentioned two measurements, the growth rate of inner metatarsal tubercle was near equal with that of the body length.