The little creature is fantastic in appearance, chiefly due to its large protruding eyes. The edge of the eyelid is white, making a thin white line around the eye. The iris is back and gold. The skin is light brown above and nearly white underneath, but some specimens have blotches of yellow which add to the weird appearance.
Living as they do in the semi-darkness of mountain gullies, little is known of the life history and habits of these strange creatures. The most notable characteristic of several specimens kept alive for observation was the peculiar singing in a liquid note repeated six or seven times. It can best be imitated by whistling. This singing is believed to be part of the courtship behavior of males.
The demon frog has been given the scientific name of Eleutherodactylus cooki. It appears to have been especially adapted for life among the boulders of its restricted habitat.
Man-Made Plants
At least a half dozen species of plants are man-made. They are hybrids which can transmit their basic and unique characters to future generations.
The fact that what long was considered an impossibility in the plant kingdom has been achieved is revealed by Dr. H. Bentley Glass, professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University. With newly developed techniques which make possible the doubling of chromosomes, bunches of genes which are the units of heredity, the creation of species may be just at its threshold and man may take over control of evolution.
The definition of species, after all, is the ability to produce offspring with the major characteristics of the parents. The first successful attempt, Dr. Glass says, was by a Russian geneticist about 30 years ago. He crossed a radish and a cabbage and produced a “rabage.” When two rabages were mated they produced seed which sprouted into other rabages.
Unfortunately for the man who had been the first to cross one of the great barriers in biology, the rabage was a pretty poor specimen. It had the prickly, uneatable leaves of the radish and the poor root system of the cabbage. Russian agricultural authorities had been led to expect great things. They were bitterly disappointed that the new vegetable did not fit into one of the five-year plans. The geneticist was not heard of again and it is generally believed that he was “eliminated” as a reward for one of science’s greatest achievements.
Creators of new species have fared somewhat better in other countries, especially the United States, but they have not fared too well anywhere. In practically every case the new species they have created have taken over the worst characters of the parent species. They have been of no commercial value. It is likely that about the same thing has happened in nature throughout the milleniums.
But bad may be good. It all depends on the environment into which the new species is born. Under the right circumstances, the rabage might have superseded both radish and cabbage. That is, it might have been adapted to a change in environment in which both parent species would have become extinct.