Vol. 30, pp. 87-88 May 23, 1917 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE TWO FORMS OF RED SPELERPES OCCURRING 



AT RALEIGH, N. C. 



BY C. S. BRIMLEY. 



A request this fall from Mr. E. R. Dunn of Smith College, 

 who has been recently doing work on the salamanders, for 

 specimens of the " sparsely spotted form of Spelerpes ruber, that 

 seems to occur at Raleigh," aroused my curiosity, and later on, 

 in December, I overhauled all my red Raleigh Spelerpes. 



I may add, by way of explanation, that my original identifi- 

 cation of Spelerpes ruber at Raleigh, had been made by means 

 of Jordan's " Manual of Vertebrates," and that the common 

 form at Raleigh had become firmly fixed in my mind as 

 " ruber." 



On looking over my material it became evident that two 

 forms existed at Raleigh side by side, which appeared to be 

 probably distinct species, and that the common form instead 

 of being " ruber," was the Spelerpes montanus of Baird. A let- 

 ter received a little later from Mr. Dunn, to whom I had written 

 on the subject, stated that he had compared Raleigh specimens 

 with the type of montanus, and was convinced that they were 

 the same. 



These two forms, as represented in my Raleigh series, differ 

 as follows : 



Spelerpes ruber. Whole upper parts, including head, down to and in- 

 clusive of upper jaw, thickly spotted with black, the spots on the back 

 larger, and more or less confluent. Under parts finely dusted with black 

 along center of belly. Edges of lower jaw more or less spotted with 

 black. Ground color more orange than in montanus. Palatine teeth 

 curving forward in ten specimens to meet parasphenoids at an acute 



21— Peoc. Biol. Soc. Wash.. Vol. 30, 1917. (87) 



