1893.] Zoology. 155 
bent tube which communicated on the one hand by a nephrostome 
with the body cavity, and on the other empties into the segmental duct. 
Immediately above the nephrostome was the malpighian body. Going 
forward the looping of the duct becomes more extensive, and extends 
from wall to wall of the somite, but no anastomoses occur and the 
nephrostome is always in the middle of the somite. The ontogeny of 
this organ will doubtless prove of extreme interest, and this point goes 
to support Cope’s thesis of the relationships of Amphiuma to the 
Gymnophiona. 
On a New Spade-Foot from Texas.—Spea laticeps sp. nov. 
—Frontoparietal bones without fontanelle, smooth. Form of head 
and body short and wide. Width of head at tympana entering length 
of head and body two and one-quarter times. Front wide and per- 
fectly flat, its width entering the length of the tibia two and one-quarter 
times, and considerably exceeding the width of an eyelid. Muzzle 
Spea laticeps Cope, nat. size. 
projecting little beyond lip; nostrils nearly terminal ; canthus ros- 
tralis not marked ; tympanum concealed; vomerine fascicles small, 
posterior to a line connecting the choane. The latter exceed in diam- 
eter the well-developed ostia pharyngea of the eustachian tubes. 
The heel of the extended hind leg reaches the position of the tym- 
panum. Its digits are half-webbed, three and one-half phalanges of 
the fourth digit remaining free. On closing the fingers the second a 
little exceeds the third in length, and the third exceeds the fifth. The 
integument of the superior and lateral surfaces extends to or beyond 
the middle of the femur. It is obscurely tubercular, and the inferior 
surfaces are smooth. There are no distinct glandular aggregations of 
