VARIATION NOTES. 1 



CARL H. EIGENMAXX AND CLARENCE KENNEDY. 



I. We have received twelve specimens of the cave sala- 

 mander, Spclcrpes inacnlicaudus, from Marble Cave, Mo., and 

 other caves in the neighborhood. With one exception they 

 presented the usual appearance of this species. They were red 

 with dark spots bilaterally unsymmetrically scattered over the 

 back and sides. The spots are subcircular and differ consider- 

 ably in size. On the sides of the head and body and tail the 

 spots not infrequently become confluent and give rise to short 

 bars usually with their longer axes lengthwise of the specimens. 

 Separating the dotted dorsal surface from the immaculate lower 

 surface, there is an interrupted streak of dark much less intensely 

 pigmented than the spots of the back. In a melanistic specimen 

 from Rockhouse Cave, Mo., this lateral streak has become broad 

 enough to cover the sides with a mottled pattern. The lower 

 surface of the head is always more or less evenly peppered with 

 isolated pigment cells. 



The specimen to which attention is called is one exhibiting 

 undoubted melanism. The lower surface of the head is more 

 densely pigmented than in the other specimens. The sides are 

 more uniformly pigmented than in the melanistic individual from 

 Rockhouse. The sides of the head, body, the arms, and anterior 

 surface of the legs are uniformly pigmented, except a few small 

 blotches or spots. The pigmentation is not as intense as in the 

 dorsal spots. The most striking deviation is found on the dorsal 

 surface. The usual spots are present, rather smaller than in the 

 other specimens. The intervening spaces are more densely 

 covered with pigment cells than in the normal specimens and in 

 several places, notably the head, the nape, and one or two places 

 on the back the spots seem to have "run," their closely com- 

 pacted pigment cells having been distributed in a thinner coat 

 over a wider area and formed, with the similarly distributed pig- 

 ment of other spots, diffuse, evenly pigmented blotches. In life 



1 Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of Indiana University, No. 52. 



227 



