90(J 



PBOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Type. — Ascaplius truei Stejneger. 



Upper jaw toothed; shoulder girdle of the arclfeious type; precora- 

 coid but slightly curved; coracoid short; epicoracoid cartilage very 

 broad; apparently no oiuosternum; sternum a narrow transverse car- 

 tilage with a short posterior median process; tongue thick, broadly 

 pear-shaped, slightly emargiuate and free behind, adherent in front; 

 urostyle with two basal transverse processes directed obliquely back- 

 ward, the articular surface quite flat; outer metatarsals separated by 

 web; Angers free; toes slightly webbed; no subarticular tubercles; 

 tips of digits obtusely pointed ; inner metatarsal tubercle slight. 



The type specimen being thus far unique, I have not ventured to 

 dissect it further than to make clear the above features, and even a 

 few of these are somewhat uncertain — for instance, the extent of the 



ASCAPHUS TRUIil. 



Fig. 1.— Underside of right hind foot. Fig. 2.— Open mouth. Fig. 3.— Underside of 



RIGHT fore foot. FiO. 4. — PECTORAL ARCH. 



Enlarged IJ times. 



degeneration of the auditory tract. The exact shape of the sternum is 

 also a little doubtful, inasumch as it had been considerably damaged 

 by the collector cutting the abdomen open to admit alcohol to the 

 intestines, but it seems almost certain that there are no posteriorly 

 diverging lateral styles as in the other genera. The precise outline of 

 the pupil is difficult to determine, but it appears to be vertically 

 elliptical; what shape it might assume by greater contraction is quite 

 uncertain. 



If the shape of the sternum really is as it appears to be in the ouly 

 specimen at hand, this genus differs considerably from the four known 

 genera, but in most other respects Ascaphiis agrees with one or more 

 of them, the chief exception being the position of the vomerine teeth, 

 which in all the others are behind the level of the choanii:', while in our 

 new genus they are located entirely between them-. 



ASCAPHUS TRUEI,' new species. 



Type.— 1^0. 25979, U.S.X.M.; Humptulips, Washington ; August 19, 

 1897; collector, Cloud Eutter. 



1 Named, in honor of Dr. F. W. True, head curator of the Department of Biology, 

 U. S. National Museum. 



