1925] Storer: A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California 87 
The foregoing suggests the following as the probable seasonal 
history for Dicamptodon ensatus. Eggs are laid early in the spring 
and the embryos hatch out by late April or early May. By autumn 
the larvae measure from 54 to 119 millimeters, exceptionally 142 milli- 
meters, in total length. Some may metamorphose in the autumn or 
winter of the year in which they were born, but the majority continue 
as larvae, growing but little in the ensuing winter. The following 
summer (possibly two years are required) they reach a length of 200 
millimeters or more and then metamorphose. Exceptional individuals 
come to sexual maturity as larvae. Maximum size of adults is between 
280 and 300 millimeters. 4 
One specimen in the axolotl stage (sexually mature larva retaining 
gills) has come to notice. It was taken in Muir Woods, Marin County, 
in April, 1897, and was kept alive in the zoological laboratory at 
Berkeley by Professor H. P. Johnson until July 26, 1897. On that 
date it was preserved. Gills were still present. Upon being opened, 
the body cavity was found to contain a large mass of eggs. These 
eggs, after 26 years in alcohol, measure about 6 millimeters in 
diameter. The ‘axolotl’ now measures 247 millimeters in total length. 
Food. — The young larvae, when kept in an aquarium, begin feed- 
ing upon small aquatic animals such as copepods within a few days 
after hatching. As growth proceeds, larger items are taken. Cope 
(1889, p. 114) records that at Baird he took from the stomach of one 
larva another of the same species, one-third its size. After meta- 
morphosis terrestrial animals are taken as food. An adult individual 
which the writer once had in captivity fed upon individuals of 
Batrachoseps attenuates kept in the same terrarium. Another large 
adult was kept with two Triturns torosus for two weeks without 
molesting them in the least. But later, when a large example of 
Aneides lugubris was placed with the D. ensatus, the latter, within 15 
minutes, had seized and nearly swallowed the Aneides. Other observ- 
ers have found specimens of the large slug ( Ariolimax ) eaten by D. 
ensatus. One of these salamanders (no. 4841, Mus. Vert. Zool.) col- 
lected in a spring 4 miles west of Sausalito, had shells of land snails in 
its stomach. The stomach of another (no. 2405, Mus. Yert. Zool.) held 
remains of a land snail and insect fragments. Miss Una Boyle has 
told the writer that she once came upon a large ‘gray’ salamander 
4 In late July of 1924, three sizes of larvae were seen in creeks near Carlotta, 
Humboldt County. The smallest was obviously from eggs of the current season, 
the second (about 150 millimeters in total length) could scarcely have been less 
than one year old, while the largest was fully 250 millimeters in length and con- 
tained developing ova. 
