SALAMANDRIDAE DESMOGNATHINAE 



103 



stones in or on the edge of the banks of little mountain streams. 

 The eggs are laid in two long strings, and are wrapped round the 

 body of the female like a rosary, the female having resorted to a 

 hollow in the mud, below a stone or other suitable place. The 

 outer envelope of each egg tapers out into a short stalk, and the 

 several stalks all converge, or are glued together into one common 

 knot, " much like a bunch of toy balloons held in the hand of a 

 street vendor." The egg is 

 said to be meroblastic. The 

 larvae seem to remain in 

 the egg until they are 

 nearly adult, and they 

 emerge at midsummer, with 

 the gills already much re- 

 duced. The complete meta- 

 morphosis takes place in 

 the autumn of the same 



year. These little newts FlG - ^--Desmognathus fuscus ; female with eggs 

 , T ,., , i in a hole imderground. x 1. (After Wilder. ) 



can, according to Wilder, 



be collected all the year round, in Massachusetts from March 

 to December, except during the time of deep snow. They are 

 nocturnal and are easily kept. 



Thorius pennatulus, from Orizaba, Mexico, the only species, is 

 noteworthy for its extremely large nostrils, and for the tongue, 

 which is supported by a central pedicle, free all round, and ending 

 in a thick knob, which can probably be protruded. The limbs are 

 weak, and the digits are also much reduced. Total length, under 

 2 inches, or 50 mm. 



Typhlotriton spelaeus, of the Eock House Cave in Missouri, is 

 blind, the eyes becoming concealed by the skin during metamor- 

 phosis, when the gills are lost. 



Sub-Fam. 2. Plethodontinae. The five genera of this almost 

 entirely American sub-family (only one species of which, Spelerpes 

 fnscus, occurs in Europe) can be distinguished as follows : 



I. The tongue is attached by its central pedicle only, is free all round, 

 ends in a soft knob and can be shot out to a considerable distance. 

 With 5 toes: Spelerpes, p. 104. 

 With 4 toes: Manculus, p. 106. 



1 Amer. Natural, xxxiii. March 1899, p. 231. 



