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1886.] | ON TWO EUROPEAN SPECIES OF BOMBINATOR. 499 
4. On two European Species of Bombinator. 
By G. A. Boutencnr, F.Z.8. 
[Received September 28, 1886. ] 
(Plate L.) 
Two distinct forms of Bombinator occur in Germany. The fact 
has been known to me for many years, having, when a boy, been 
struck by the very different appearance of specimens obtained by me 
at Dresden as compared with the familiar form from Belgium and the 
Rhine. But it was only during a recent journey to Germany that I 
was enabled, by examining a larger material, to form a decisive 
opinion that the two forms are entitled to rank as species. 
German authors, so far as can be gathered from their publications, 
have never seized upon the distinction, although individual variations 
have caused a var. brevipes (Blasius), Koch, to be established. 
Possibly Fitzinger was the first to separate the two forms correctly 
by distinguishing a Bombinator pachypus, from the mountains of 
Italy, from the true B. igneus of Laurenti. However, perhaps 
through misrepresentation of Fitzinger’s views, nothing but confu- 
sion was added by Bonaparte, who, as is well known, introduced 
that author’s MS. name into nomenclature’. The result of my 
search into the synonymy of Bombinator is that Linnzus’s name 
Rana bombina and Laurenti’s Bufo igneus apply respectively to the 
two species now under consideration. ‘The words of Linnzeus (Faun. 
Suec. 2nd ed. p. 101, 1761), ‘* abdomine luteo nigro maculato,” and 
those of Laurenti (Syn. Rept. p. 29, 1768) “infra albido-cerulescens, 
punctatus maculis lete miniatis,” seem to settle the point ; and if, as 
I have reason to believe, the paler-bellied Frog occurs in Sweden and 
the brighter one in Austria, “‘ in paludibus Danubialibus,”’ it is settled 
- beyond doubt. Although Résel, as pree-Linnean and polynomialist, 
has no claim in matters of nomenclature, it is well to say that his, 
the first scientific, account of Bombinator refers to the form which I now 
name B. bombinus. It must also be added that B. pachypus and 
B. brevipes are undoubtedly to be regarded as synonyms of B. bom- 
binus, and that the sacrum and coccyx figured by Gené (Syn. Rept. 
Sard.) as that of B. igneus, and which has lately been the subject of 
some discussion, is clearly that of a Pelobates. 
I may now pass on to the distinctive characters of the two species. 
1. Bomprnator Bomsinus, L. (Plate L. fig. 1.) 
Habit stouter, snout rather shorter, digits thicker, warts stronger 
and more crowded than in B. igneus. The length of the leg or 
crus equals or exceeds the distance between the inner metatarsal 
tubercle and the extremity of the fourth toe. Male with black 
nuptial exerescences under the second and third toes, sometimes also 
_ | Bonaparte’s figure was evidently not executed from life, and therefore no 
importance is to be attached to the coloration attributed to his B. pachypus, 
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