1908-9. ] THE HABITS OF PLETHODON CINEREUS ERYTHRONOTUS. 469 
, 
THE HABITS AND. LARVAL STATE OF PLETHODON CINEREUS 
ERYVT HRONORG'S: 
By, Wi) HOPrERSOL), BEA MB: 
ALTHOUGH Plethodon cinereus is considered by Cope (’89) ‘‘the most 
abundant salamander in the northern and central United States’’ its 
habits and development have received but little attention. Cope (’89) 
gives a brief outline and Wilder (’94) a scant mention, Montgomery (or) 
adds a few points and describes the larve of one bunch of eggs. Reed (’08) 
discusses the coloration of adults. Kingsbury (’95) touches on the 
questions of the transference of sperm and the season of egg-laying but 
without coming to any definite conclusions. Sherwood (’95) givesa date 
on which eggs werefound. As regards Plethodon oregonensis the 
behavior in captivity of a female found with her eggs is described by van 
Denbrugh (’98), and Hubbard (’03) deals with some protective devices. 
There are several other papers in which Plethodon is mentioned but with- 
out reference to habits or development. The observations recorded 
below have been made partly in the field, partly in the laboratory, and on 
specimens from several localities, all however within a radius of fifteen 
miles from Toronto. Unless recorded as single occurrences, all observa- 
tions have been verified in at least one subsequent season. Cope (’89) 
divides P. cinereus into three sub-species of which P. cin. cinereus and P. 
cn. erythronotus only are common. For the sake of ensuring uniformity 
the latter variety alone forms the subject of this paper. Many larve 
of P. cin. cin. have also been found and comparisons made with similar 
stages of P. cin. eryth. show that in the larva as in the adult the sole dis- 
tinction between the two varieties is the coloration. ‘The difference in 
geographical distribution which Cope mentions is not invariable, one bit 
of woodland may yield the two varieties in about equal numbers, another 
quite similar but a few miles away may contain P. cin. eryth. in abundance 
and but few P. cin. cin. No locality yielding either variety alone, or a 
majority of P. cin. cin. has been met with. 
The typical coloration of the two sub-species is closely adhered to, the 
intermediates noted by Reed (’08) are very rare and even then approach 
closely the types; and only one specimen with much more than the normal 
amount of red was found. About 250 adults have been under examination, 
a number not so great as that used by Reed but sufficient to show that in 
