198 BULLETIN 34, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Desmognathus fusca auriculata Holbrook. 

 EESERVE SEKIES. 



Catalogae 



No. of 



number. 



spec. 



8906 



8 



881!) 



10 



3901 



1 



68i!& 



.5 



3806 



3 



Locality. 



Oakley, S.C 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 

 Ricebotough, Ga 



(?) 



Knoxville, Tcnn. 



AVhon 

 collected. 



April 5,1877 



Fiom whom received. 



V. W. Hay ward 



J. N. B.- Scarborough 



Dr. W. L. Jones 



(?) --. 



Prof. J. B. Mitchell . 



Nature of 

 specimen. 



Alroliolic. 

 Do. 



1)0. 



Do. 

 Do. 



DESMOGNATHUS NIGRA Green.* 



Baird, Journ. Acad. Pbila. (2) i, p. 286 ; Cope, Proceed. Ac, Phila., 1869, 

 p. 117; Straucb, Salam., p. 73; Gray, Cat. Batr. Grad. Brit. Mns., 

 ed. I, p. 40; Boulenger, Cat. Batr. Grad. Brit. Mus., ed. ii, 1S82, p. 79. 



Salamandra nigra Green, Journ. Ac. Phila, i, p. 352. 



Triton n'ujer Holbr., N. A. Herp., and p. 81, PI. 27. 



Aviblijstoma nigrum Dum. & Bibr., p. 105. 



Plethodon n'lger Hallow., Jour. Ac. Pbila. (2), iir, p. 344, partita. 



This is tbe most robust salamander of the easteru regions of our 

 zoological realm ; it is not so sleuder as tbe Gyrinophilusporpltyritieus, 

 and is a much stronger animal. As compared with the D. fusca it is much 

 larger, the tail is more compressed and extensively finned, and the color 

 is uniformly different. Besides the characters already pointed out in 

 the table, it differs from J), fusca as follows : The paraspheuoid patches 

 of teeth are prolonged more anteriorly, and approach very near the 

 vomerines in most instances ; they are always prolonged beyond the 

 middle of the orbits j their ])rolongatlon is at the same time narrowed, 

 and in most the j)atchcs are not distinguished at this point. The vom- 

 erine series are better distinguished (though not always), being oblique, 

 separate, and not extending beyond nares. The tongue is in eight speci- 

 mens examined nearly round, while it is always a long oval in the two 

 other Desmognathi; finally, the only male does not possess the black 

 pigment coat of the testes always present in the others, though, as in 

 them, the vas deferens is black. The body is stouter, and the width of 

 the head enters the length to the groin less than five times — in the 

 others always morcj this is also exjiressed by the existence of only 

 twelve costal plicae, and the fact that the appressed limbs are only S"p- 

 arated by 2^ intercostal spaces. 



The iiostorbital plicae are not strongly marked. The mucous poro.^ 

 are well developed, aud the two lateral series are often distinct in alco- 

 holic specimens by their white color; when the}* become dry they arc 

 difficult to observe. There arc two rather distant gular series within 

 the mandibular rami on each side, and one on each side extending in 

 wards and forwards from the gular plica. The superior lateral series 

 extends from the orbit to near the end of the tail ; the inferior round 

 the humeri to each side the pectoral region. 



* Plate 49, fig. 1. 



