116 
University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 27 
Measurements of Two Specimens of Hydromantes platycephala from 
Lyell Canon, Yosemite National Park 
(Dimensions in millimeters) 
Mus. Vert. Zool. No. 
5693, $ 
5694, c? 
(alive) 
(in alcohol) 
(in alcohol) 
Total length 
106.5 
99.4 
86.9 
Length of tail 
35.5 
33.6 
28.7 
Snout to gular fold 
15.3 
14.2 
12.6 
Greatest width of head 
11.9 
9.5 
10.2 
Orbit 
3.6 
3.7 
Interorbital space 
4.0 
4.1 
Foreleg 
16 
15.5 
15.5 
Hand 
6.0 
4.8 
Hind leg 
18 
17.0 
16.9 
Hind foot 
7.0 
7.0 
Range. — This species was discovered on July 18, 1915, when two 
specimens were taken in the head of Lyell Canon on the slopes of 
Mount Lyell, in Yosemite National Park. The locality of capture 
(and only known record station to date) was 
about a mile from the [Lyell] glacier and a little below timber line, here marked 
by a few stunted white-bark pines [ Pinus albicaulis ] on the tops of the ridges. 
The exact spot was at the 10,800-foot contour, on a steep, east-facing hillside 
above the Donohue Pass trail in a small patch of heather [Phyllodoce Breweri]. 
A stream close by issued directly from the snow banks and disappeared beneath 
rock-slides below. The two specimens were found to have been captured simul- 
taneously in a spring-clip mouse-trap set in front of a small hole running into the 
moist soil beneath some rocks (Camp, 1916&, pp. 13-14). 
Life-history . — Nothing is known concerning the life of this boreal 
salamander of the Sierra Nevada. The sole station of record is in the 
upper part of the Hudsonian Zone. Bufo canorus, another local 
species, and Hyla regilla, which ranges over most of the Pacific Coast, 
are the only amphibian associates of platycephala. The webbing of 
the digits suggests some degree of aquaticity in habits. 
“ Spelerpes platycephalus” was compared by Camp (19165, p. 12) 
with Spelerpes leprosies Cope from northeastern Mexico, but Dunn 
(1923a, p. 40) places it in the genus Hydromantes Gistel, of which 
there are two other species, II. genei (Schlegel) and H. it aliens Dunn 
( H . fusens Bonaparte), in Europe. 
