Amphibians and Rki'Tilks of Santa ^^Iakta 43 



It is clear that the bromelias must be considered a minor habitat for 

 tlie groups under consideration. The Bromehaciae are in general an impor- 

 tant habitat in the wet forest above 4,500 feet. (PI. V, fig 2 ; PI. VI.) The 

 list of species found in these plants is as diversified as similar lists for 

 other localities,"' and includes earthworms, leaches, peripati, isopods, 

 myriapods, cockroaches, spiders, Heteroptera. beetles, scorpions, insect 

 larvae (flies, dragonflies, beetles), a salamander, and frogs of several species. 

 However, lists of species taken in bromelias may be misleading, for all of 

 the forms found in these plants are not, strictly speaking, bromeliadicolous. 

 Tn bromelias are to be found species which are apparently confined to this 

 habitat and those which are found here occasionally but quite as often, and 

 in some cases mtich more commonly, in other situations affording conceal- 

 ment, such as under bark, in hollow trees, and in masses of vegetal)le debris 

 lodged in trees and shrubs. It would seem to be best to restrict the term 

 bromeliadicolous to those species which for the most part breed in the 

 bromelias, and to those which, if not breeding there, occur principallv in 

 these plants. Under this definition one salamander. Oedipus adspcrsus 

 (viviparous), and two frogs, Blcuthcrodactylns cnientus and E. delicatns, 

 are bromeliadicolous forms in the Santa Marta Mountains, and Hleuthero- 

 dactylus sanctac-martac. and E. insignitus may prove to be. 



The distribution of the more common amphibians and reptiles found 

 on the northwest slope of San Lorenzo is summarized in the following 

 table. The cross-section made may be located by the towns and plantations 

 given at the head of the chart. (Facing p. 40.) 



It is to be understood that the data on the distribution of the snakes 

 is fragmentary. This is to be expected, since collecting in this group is 

 well known to be fortuitous in any region. The data is not without value, 

 however, when it is considered that every species taken above 2,200 feet 

 and not yet found on San Lorenzo below this altitude is known to occur 

 on the lowlands in northern Colombia. This fact, with the further one 

 that only one lizard and six frogs, a total of seven species out of forty-two 

 common species (including the snakes), are not known from below 2.200 

 feet, shows clearly that the fauna has been in large part and probably 

 entirely derived from the lowlands.* 



A study of the table will reveal a certain amount of zona! arrangement 

 of the species. Only five species, three amphibians, one lizard, and one 

 snake otit of nineteen desert forms have not been found above the desert, 

 and of these at least the snake certainly occurs higher. Similarly, of a 

 fauna of twenty-three species found in the dry forest, fourteen forms are 

 known to occur on the desert, and of the nine forms not taken on the 

 desert three are snakes and six are lizards, all of which will probablv be 

 found to occur there, as all but one have been found elsewhere on the low- 

 lands. It is evident that the fauna of the dry forest and desert are prac- 



^' Compare Ohaus, Ent. Zcitiiiig, Stctt., 1900, pp. 211-212, 237-^40; Calvert. Ent. 

 Nczvs, XXII, pp. 402-411; Scott, Ami. and Mag. Nat. Hist., X, pp. 424-438. 



*A similar condition was found i)y the writer in the San Franci-;..* Mountains. 

 New Mexico. Bui Amer. Mus. Nat Hist., XXIII, 603. 



