Bejjiiles (Old Aniph/bians of Illinois. 3()7 



Plethodon erythronotvm, Dum. et Bibr., Erp. Gen., 1854, IX., 

 p. 86 — Smith, Tailed Amphibians, 1877, p. CA. — Boulenger 

 Cat. Batr. Sal. in Coll. Brit. Mus., 2d ed., 1882, Sal. Caudata' 

 p. 37. 



Total length from three to three and a half inches. With 

 from sixteen to nineteen costal folds. Body cylindrical, very 

 slender. Head small, flat above, depressed. Eye prominent. 

 Lowrer jaw veeak. Tongue large, attached by a strip along its 

 middle. Palatine teeth not extending outside the inner nares. 

 Tail rather short, cylindrical and tapering. Legs v^^eak; first 

 toe of both anterior and posterior feet rudimentary; fifth toe of 

 latter small. 



Color above uniform brownish black with minute scattered 

 white points or with a wide longitudinal baud varying from 

 yellow to bright red, extending from the tip of the snout 

 nearly to the tip of the tail. Color below whitish mixed with 

 dusky, the latter color predominating posteriorly, becoming 

 paler anteriorly until on the throat the color is whitish with 

 an obscure dusky mottling. 



Length from snout to vent, 1.25; tail, beyond vent, 1.16. 



Credited to Illinois on the authority of Davis and Rice. 

 It should be looked for in southern Illinois. 



Variety erythronota 



may lie known l)y its wide yellow or red dorsal band. 

 Variety cinerea 



lacks the dorsal l>and, but otherwise presents no essential points 

 of difference. It has been supposed to be represented merely 

 by the old examples of the species, l)ut it is not positively 

 known just what the relational' of the two forms is. It is not 

 a relation of sex, for Hallowell found by dissection both males 

 and females of the red-backed form. 



This little salamander is one of the earliest to appear in 

 spring, and, in localities frequented by it, is common under 

 stones and the bark of decaying logs. It is strictly terrestrial, 

 the eggs being deposited in small masses under bark. The 

 young accompany the parent for some time after hatching. 



