547 



Molge Poireti (Gerv.). 



The length of the lungs is only 39,3 percent of the length of head 

 and body. 



Salamandrella Keyserlingii Dyb. 

 from Ekaterinenburg, Ural, has the lungs extending fully half way 

 between the axilla and the groin thus being 45,2 percent of the length 

 of head and body. 



Ranidens Sibiriens Kessler 

 from Kopal, Altai mountains. The lungs are only 38,4 percent of the 

 length of head and body and extend half way between the axilla and 

 the groin. 



Amhly stoma putictatum (Lin.) 

 North America. The length of the lungs are 4 1 percent of the length 

 of head and body. 



Amhlystoma micro stomum Cope, 

 from St. Louis Mo., U. S. A., has the lungs 44,6percent of the length 

 of head and body and extending half way between the axilla and 

 the groin. 



We see from this that the salamanders mentioned above can, with 

 regard to the development of their lungs, be divided into two classes, 

 namely, 1) such in which the lungs extend to the groin and are about 

 60 percent of the length of head and body, and 2) such in which the 

 lungs extend only about half way between axilla and groin and 

 measure only from 45 to 38 percent of the length of the head and 

 body. Camera no has rightly pointed out the importance of the 

 lungs as an hydrostatic organ and it seems quite probable that the 

 great length of the lungs in many forms is an adaption to aquatic life. 

 But the lungless salamanders are not necessarily obliged to lead a 

 terrestrial life, even if many of them do so, on the contrary, some of 

 them are very positively aquatic in their habits. In the latter case, 

 however, they do not swim suspended in the middle of the water, as 

 the species oi Molge, but crawl or wriggle at the bottom. It can thus 

 be said that their movements often are terrestrial although they live in 

 the water. This can be proved about some species with quotations 

 from Cope: »The Batrachia of North America« ^j. He says, for instance 

 about Spelerpes bilineatus (1. c. p. 166) that it is »to a great extent a 

 water animahf, but: »It is only in shallow stony brooks that it 

 occurs« .... »It is very active, and wriggles and runs from the pur- 

 suer in the same manner as , and generally in company with, the 



5 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 34. 



