UEODELA. 19 J 



five posterior digits. Menopoma alleghanisnse Harl., Pennsylvania an 1 Virgi iia ; 

 Crypto/branchiis japonicus v. d. Hoev., more than three feet long, Japan. 



Sub-order 2. Salamandrina.* 



Without gills or gill aperture, with valve-like eye-lids and opisthocce- 

 lous vertebrce. 



The body, which is shaped more or less like that of a Lizard, is 

 without external gills and gill-slits in the adult state, and always 

 possesses anterior and posterior extremities, of which the first usually 

 have four and the latter five digits. Well-developed eyelids are 

 always present. The palatal teeth form two rows, which unite in 

 the middle line at the posterior margin of the palatine bone. The 

 skin is moist and slimy, and has a more or less uneven warty appear- 

 ance, owing to the presence of a number of glands which secrete a 

 pungent and irritating milky fluid. These glands are sometimes 

 especially aggregated in the region of the ear. 



The Aquatic Salamanders (Newts) lay fertilized eggs on plants. 

 The Land Salamanders, on the contrary, are viviparous and deposit 

 their offspring, which pass through their metamorphosis more or less 

 completely in the uterus of the mother, in water. The spotted Land 

 Salamander produces thirty to forty larvie, each twelve to fifteen 

 mm. long, with four legs and external gill tufts, while the blac'i 

 Land Salamander of the higher Alpine regions bears only one [two ?] 

 completely-developed offspring. In the latter case, of the numerous 

 eggs which enter the two uteri, only the lowest on each side 

 develops into an embryo, which derives its nourishment from the rest 

 of the eggs which run together so as to form a common mass, and is 

 able to undergo all the stages of development within the uterus. 



Fam. Tritonidae. Aquatic Salamanders or Newts. Of slender form, with 

 laterally compressed swimming tail. Triton cristatus Laur., large Newt. Tr. 

 alpestris Laur. (Igneiis Bechst.), (Bergsalamander). Tr. tceniatus, Schn., small 

 Newt. 



Fam. Salamandrinse. Land- Salamanders. Clumsy body, with cylindrical 

 tail. Salamancira maculosa Laur., the Spotted Salamander ; distributed over 

 almost all Europe to North Africa. S. atra Laur., Black Salamander, in the 

 high mountains of South Germany, France and Switzerland. 



* Eusconi, " Amours des Salamandres aquatiques," Milano, 1821. 



Rusconi, "Histoire naturelle, developpement et metamorphose de la Sala- 

 mandre terrestre," Paris, 1854. 



v. Siebold, " Ueber das Receptaculum seminis der weiblichen Urodelen," 

 Zettschr.fiis rviss, Zool., 1858. 



FT. Leydig, " Ueber die Molche der wiirtembergischen Fauna," Archiv fur 

 Naturg etch., 1867. 



R. Wiedersheim, "Salamandrina perspicillata und Geotriton fuscus, etc., 

 Genua, 1875. 



