I lO 



URODELA 



CHAP. 



aspect the hatching took 23 days. The larvae were 10 mm. long, 

 and remarkable for the length (1 mm.) of their balancers. 



Amhlystomn opacum. — The general shape is very much like 

 that of the European Spotted Salamander. The head is short 

 and broad, the snout is rounded. The eyes are very pro- 

 minent, with a black pupil and a dark-grey iris. The neck has 

 a well-marked gular fold. The tail is thick and almost round. 

 The hind-limbs are considerably larger than the fore-limbs. The 

 general colour of the shiny, moist skin is a purplish-black with 

 light grey, transverse, partly confluent bars, giving the creature 



a pretty appearance ; the under parts 

 are paler, bluish -grey. Total lengtli 

 between 3 and -4 inches, or 9 cm. 



This beautiful species inhabits 

 manv of the United States east of 



*j 



the liockv Mountains, from New 

 Jersey to Florida and Texas. In the 

 perfect state it is thoroughly terres- 

 trial and easily kept. My specimens 

 prefer the holes of rotten and moist, 

 moss-covered stumps, or holes beneath 

 stones, which they leave, at night 

 only, in search of earthworms and 

 insects. 



A. taljyoideum is closely allied, 

 somewhat stouter and almost uniform 

 brownish -back. According to Hol- 

 brook, " it chooses light soil in which 

 it will bury itself in a few seconds like a mole, and there continue 

 its course concealed from view ; but its track can often lie followed 

 by the elevation produced on the surftice of the soil, similar to 

 that seen in fields infested by moles." 



A. punctatum is bluish-black, with a row of roundish yellow 

 spots on each side of the body and tail and upon the limbs. 



E. A. Andrews ^ has made observations upon the Ijreeding of 

 this species. Xear Baltimore the eggs are very abundant in 

 March and even in February, in small pools in the woods, but 

 the adults are then rarely seen. Even when small pools, but 

 4 feet wide and 9 inches deep, were thoroughly raked out 



' Aiticr. Natural, .\x.\i. 1897, p. 635. 



Fig. 21. — -Egg-sac oi Saluvmadrclla 

 schren/ci. x i. (After Shitkow.) 



