Fig. 12. Tadpoles of Smilisca cyanosticta: (A) Stage 21 (KU 87648) (B) Stage 25 (KU 87651) × 5; (C) Stage 30 (KU 87652) × 4; (D) Stage 40 (KU 87650) × 3.
The beaks are well developed and finely serrate in all species. The lower, broadly V-shaped, beak is slender in S. puma, rather robust in S. baudini and sila, and moderately heavy in the other species. The lateral processes of the upper beak are shortest in S. puma and longest in S. baudini and sordida. In the latter the inner margin of the upper beak and lateral process have the form of a shallow S, whereas in the other species the inner margin of the upper beak forms a continuous arch with the lateral processes (Fig. 15).
Fig. 13. Tadpoles of Smilisca phaeota: (A) Stage 21 (KU 68479) × 14; (B) Stage 25 (KU 68480) × 5; (C) Stage 30 (KU 68482) × 4; (D) Stage 40 (KU 68483) × 3.
Coloration.—The tadpoles of Smilisca lack the bright colors or bold markings characteristic of some hylid tadpoles; even so, the subdued colors and arrangement of pigments provide some distinctive markings by which the species can be distinguished from one another. The species comprising the baudini group (S. baudini, cyanosticta, and phaeota) are alike in having the body brown or grayish brown dorsally and transparent with scattered brown pigment ventrally. A cream-colored, crescent-shaped mark is present on the posterior edge of the body; this mark is usually most noticeable in S. baudini and least so in S. cyanosticta. Other differences in coloration in members of the baudini group are relative and subtle. Smilisca phaeota usually is more pallid than baudini, and cyanosticta usually is darker than baudini; both species have larger dark markings on the tail than does S. phaeota. Smilisca baudini has a dark streak on the middle of the anterior one-fourth of the tail (Figs. 11-13).
Smilisca puma is distinctive in having a grayish brown body and dark gray reticulations on the tail. Smilisca sila and sordida are distinctive in having pairs (sometimes interconnected) of dark marks on the dorsal surfaces of the caudal musculature, and in dorsal view the tail appears to be marked with dark and pale creamy tan transverse bars. These dark marks, as well as the small flecks on the tail, are brown in S. sila and red in sordida. Smilisca sila has dark brown flecks on the dorsal surface of the body and small white flecks laterally; these markings are absent in S. sordida (Fig. 14).
Descriptions of the coloration of living tadpoles are given in the accounts of the species.