No. 2.] THE SPERMATOPHORES OF DIEMYCTYLUS. 265 



female, and thus afford a ready means of distinguishing between 

 the sexes. They are also much larger than the fore limbs of 

 both sexes. 



It has been suspected by most writers on the subject that 

 the fertilization of Diemyctylus is internal, and this has been 

 recently demonstrated to be the case by Gage. 1 The demon- 

 stration of internal fertilization is by no means difficult ; one 

 has only to isolate any female freshly captured, say between 

 April 15 and June 15, to be convinced that internal fertilization 

 is the normal procedure in this species. Almost every female 

 so isolated will for at least several days after her capture con- 

 tinue to lay fertilized eggs. In one instance an isolated female 

 under my observation laid fertilized eggs for nineteen days after 

 her separation from a male. I shall describe the egg-laying of 

 this species more in detail in my coming paper. 2 



I have found, furthermore, spermatozoa in the cloaca of the 

 female in nearly all the specimens examined between the first 

 of May and the first of July. These spermatozoa are not inside 

 the mouth of the oviduct, as might be expected, but are closely 

 packed in the ducts of two groups of gland-like structures 

 situated in the cloacal wall just below the entrance of the ovi- 

 ducts. These ducts are undoubtedly identical with the " Samen- 

 taschen " described long ago by v. Siebold (be. cit.) in the Euro- 

 pean salamanders and tritons. Blanchard, 3 who has recently 

 investigated the structure of the pelvic and cloacal glands of 

 the Urodela, makes on this point the following statement : " La 

 glande que v. Siebold a decrite dans la cloaque de Salamandra 



1 American Naturalist, April, 1 89 1, p. 380. 



2 The possibilities of mal-observation may be estimated perhaps by a quotation 

 from a recent paper (" Notes on the Life-History of the Common Newt," Colonel Nico- 

 las Pike, American Naturalist, XX., 1886, p. 17) : "The males dart about, gyrating 

 round their chosen mates, heading them off in their endeavors to escape, and when 

 they have at last won the victory they seize the females round the lumbar region and 

 remain thus often for hours. The milt and ova pass simultaneously, and the opera- 

 tion takes some time, but it is generally accomplished under cover of darkness. The 

 older females often deposit 150 to 300 eggs at a time, which they attach to twigs in 

 the water or long grass. The eggs are very small at first, but rapidly swell." The 

 eggs, so described, were undoubtedly the eggs of some species of Amblystoma. That 

 the "milt and ova "do not pass " simultaneously" is abundantly evident from the 

 observations recorded in my paper. 



8 R. Blanchard, Sur les glands cloacale et pelvienne et sur la papille cloacale 

 des Batraciens urodeles. Zool. Anz., IV., 1881, pp. 9, 34. 



