1898.] 



COTJKT M. G. PEEACCA ON AN ITAilAN NEWT. 



485 



or metallic-yellow roundish spot, nearly constant in all specimens, 

 on the temporal region. Iris, in breeding specimens, golden, 

 shining, crossed by a transverse blackish-brown band. 



In the specimens on land the tail loses its crest, the end 

 becomes very shortly mucronated, and the male is no longer dis- 

 tinguishable from the female. The flanks in the male lose their 

 brilliant appearance and become dark olive or grey-brown, minutely 

 speckled with slate-grey or light brown like the upper parts, on 

 which the dark dots and, usually, two lateral blackish festooned 

 lines, as in the female, become A^ery conspicuous. 



This species was discovered by me this year in the beginning of 

 March near Potenza in the Basilicata (822 m. above sea-level), where 

 I found it very common in all pools, reservoirs, and ditches along 

 the Basente river, in which the water is sometimes slowly running. 

 In some deep wells I found numerous larvae, which evidently were 

 about a year old and had spent the winter in the water. I am 

 not able to state, at pi-esent, whether these larvge present the true 

 facies of such as perform their regular annual cycle of development 

 till the metamorphosis. They resemble very much in general 

 shape and coloration those of M. alpestris. 1 think that a further 

 investigation will perhaps prove that the larva of M. italica maybe 

 intermediate between that of M. alpestris and 31. vulrjaris. 



I hope to be able to give later on a full description of the larvae 

 which are now developing in my aquarium. 



Among the larvae collected at Potenza I found some gigantic 

 gdl-breathing specimens, which a careful examination proved to 

 be adult. All were provided with a low dorsal crest, beginning 

 nearly above the insertion of the gills. Most of them were females 

 with perfectly developed eggs ; among the males I found one 

 with conspicuously developed gills, swollen lips of the cloaca, and 

 showing the size and the characteristic brilliant metallic coloration 

 of fully metamorphosed adult breeding males. This fact proves 

 that M. italica, at least in the mountain district of Potenza, is 



