NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 373 



The best description of the Spelerpes Bellii is the first part of that above 

 cited, from the Erpetologie Generale, and which should be regarded as indica- 

 ting the Bolitoglossa Mexicana of the author of that work, although the same 

 species is figured as a variety of another, described in the text in a supplement 

 to the description of the first. The animal described in the supplement, is 

 there regarded, it would appear, correctly, as the Oedipus platydactylus of 

 Tschudi, and is not only specifically, but probably generically distinct from 

 Spelerpes Bellii. 



In size this species is only exceeded by some of the Amblystomata of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley : one of our specimens is at least eight inches long. The tail, 

 whose length is about equal to that of the head and body, is compressed toward 

 the tip, but cylindrical and greatly swollen at the base, as in Hemidactylium 

 scutatum, though in a greater degree. It is encircled by grooves similar to 

 those of the flanks. The toes are short, broad, depressed, very distinct, and 

 with scarcely a trace of connecting membrane at the base, certainly much less 

 in our specimens than is represented in the fig. in Erp. Generale. The extrem- 

 ity of each is provided beneath with a knob or callosity. The palatine teeth 

 extend from the very exterior point of the posterior border of the palatine 

 bones, and from two nearly transverse arched series, which meet near the cen- 

 tre of the suture with the sphenoid bone. This resembles the arrangement 

 in the Geotriton fuscus and the Heredia of Girard, rather than the ordinary 

 Spelerpes, where the series are shorter, more oblique, and not in contact. The 

 patches of sphenoid teeth are more distinct and elongated than in the species 

 of Plethodon, but less so than in Pseudotriton ruber. A considerable space 

 separates these from the posterior angle of the palatine series. 



The fresh specimens of this species that I have seen are of a lead color , other 

 specimens are much darker, but whether this is a result of long preservation 

 in spirits I am not able to state. Upon the back is a double row of obliquely 

 pyriform spots of an orange red in life, but which became yellowish white in 

 spirits. These become confluent upon the neck, and, according to authors, are 

 sometimes preceded by a pair of large spots of the same color upon the occi- 

 put. Belly immaculate. 



GSOTEITON CARBONARIUS Cope. 



f "Salamandra platydactyla Cuvier, Mus. Paris." 



? Oedipus platydactylus Tschudi, Classif. der Batrachier, p. 93, 1838. 



Bolitoglossa Mexicana Dumeril, Erp. Gen., vol ix. p. 93, 1854. (Specimens 

 from Vera Paz.) PI. 105, fig. 1. 



There can be little doubt that a salamander exhibiting a structure of the 

 feet similar to that of the present species, furnished the characters of Tschudi's 

 genus Oedipus, and also that of Dr. Gray. What species this reptile pertained 

 to, cannot readily be ascertained, as no description of it appears to have been 

 published, unless it be identical with the 0. variegatus of the latter author. 

 In this case it is not probably the same as that figured in the Erpetologie Gen- 

 erale, and of which two .specimens are before me. 



It is evident that the Oedipus of Tschudi cannot be retained, as founded upon 

 an undescribed species, even were it sufficiently distinct. That it is not dis- 

 tinct from the Geotriton of Bonaparte, is very probable, although it is contrary 

 to analogy to find a genus of reptiles in so southern a latitude as that of Jala- 

 pa identical upon another hemisphere. With the Geotriton fuscus Bp. 

 before me, I find the following characters common to it and the species which 

 is the subject of this article. Supra and postorbital bony arches absent. 

 Palatine teeth in two transverse regularly arched series almost in contact 

 medially. Sphenoid teeth numerous, in two oval patches upon the sphenoid 

 bone, separated by an interval from the palatines. Tongue boletoid. Paro- 

 tids none. Tail cylindrical. Digits 4 5, slender, united by a broad membrane. 



The broad palmation of the fingers and toes distinguishes the genus from 



I860.] 



