DESCEIPTIOX OF A NEW GEXUS AND SrECIES OF BLIND 

 TAILED 15ATEACHIANS FROM THE SrBTERRANEAN 

 WATERS OF TEXAS. 



By Leonhard Stejneger, 



Curator nf tlie Department of Biptihs and Batrachiana. 



Four years ago it was my good fortune to aunoimce the discovery 

 of a blind cave salamander (Typhlotriton si)ela'i(,s) on our continent, 

 wLicli I then characterized as "one of the most important and interest- 

 ing- herpetological events of recent years.'' ^ The animal to be described 

 now is also a blind salamander-like batrachian, and its discovery is even 

 more important and interesting than the former. 



From an artesian well, 188^ feet deep, recently bored at San JMarcos, 

 Texas, by the United States Fish Commission, more than a dozen speci- 

 mens of a most remarkable tailed batrachian have been expelled, 

 together with numerous crustaceans, no less remarkable, which will be 

 descril)ed by Mr. Benedict in these "Proceedings." 



These animals, by their waiit of external eyes and their wliite color, 

 at once proclaimed tlieniselves as cave-dwellers, but their extraordina; y 

 proportions, absolutely uni(pie in the order to which they belong", sug- 

 gest unusual conditions of life, which alone can have produced such 

 l^rofound differences. The most startling external feature is the length 

 and slenderness of the legs, like which there is nothing among the 

 tailed batrachians thus far known. While the normal number of fingers 

 and toes is present (4 and 5), it is worthy of note that not onlj- is. there 

 a great variation in the relative length of these members, but even the 

 length of the legs in the same animal may differ as much as two milli- 

 meters. Viewed in connection with the well-developed, finned swim- 

 ming-tail, it can be safely assumed that these extraordinarily slender 

 and elongated legs are not used for locomotion, and the conviction is 

 irresistible that in the inky darkness of the subterranean waters they 

 serve the animal as feelers, their development being thus parallel to 



' Preliminary Description of a New Genus anil Species of Blind Cave Salamauder 

 from North America, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XV, pp. 115-117, pi. ix. 



-The deptli of this well in the Advance Sheet, April 15, ISHC, was given as 181 

 lei't, which has since heen found to he incorrect. 



Proceedings til' flic United States National Museum, \'(il. \\'III— Xo. 1088. 



[Advance .slieets of this paper were published April 15, 1836.] 



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