1925] Storer : A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California 
137 
to hatching. These specimens range from 32 to 162 millimeters in 
total length. Grouping these by differences of 10 millimeters in total 
length the following results are obtained : 
The grouping here suggests that the animals of the season’s brood 
range up to about 50 millimeters in total length; those of the next 
brood about 70 millimeters in length; of the third year about 110 
millimeters long ; of the fourth year 130 millimeters ; and of the oldest 
group, 5 years or more of age, over 140 millimeters in length. 
Aneides lugubris feeds upon insects to a considerable extent. 
Cope (1889, p. 185) states that in the stomach of one specimen he 
found ants, in another three or four species of beetles including an 
entire Coccinellid. The present writer has found insect fragments in 
the stomachs of museum specimens. The female wuth well developed 
eggs collected February 10, 1904, contained a Batrachoseps when it 
was killed 13 days later ; this may have been obtained in captivity as 
the specimen was only partially digested. 
Two adult Aneides , male and female, captured with a set of eggs 
on September 19, 1903, had, by September 24, passed a number of 
pellets of faeces and these were examined carefully as to contents. 
They showed hard parts of insects, legs, wing covers, etc., numbers of amoeboid 
bodies, spores of fungi and chips of wood. I had previously suspected the animal 
of eating the softened wood and fungus. The richness and abundance of the damp 
fungus would make it an easy food. The presence of oak fibers in a number of 
faecal pellets and abundance of fungus spores possibly gives the dark color to the 
stomach contents and the faeces. One piece of wood was 3 mm. in length and 
another 4 mm. The mass of the faeces is made up of wood fiber, spores and spore 
masses. ... A mass of wood fibre and fungus was brought in from the tree 
where so many salamanders were found together and examined for insect forms. 
Three or four small spiders and a couple of . . . insects were all that could be 
found. The amount of such life in a cavity that is so thoroughly peopled as the 
one last seen would be entirely insignificant as a food supply for the whole colony. 
The fungus spores and wood fibers are identical with those taken from the faeces. 
(Miller, MS.) 
The life-history in relation to the environment . — Aneides lugubris 
appears to be the most specialized of the salamanders occurring in 
California with respect to its adjustment to environmental conditions. 
It seems to have gone about as far as a non-aquatic salamander can 
25-34 mm. 
35-44 mm. 
45-54 mm. 
55-64 mm. 
65-74 mm. 
1 75- 84 mm. 
5 85- 94 mm. 
3 95-104 mm. 
1 105-114 mm. 
6 115-124 mm. 
3 125-134 mm. 
2 135-144 mm. 
1 145-154 mm. 
5 155-162 mm. 
2 
4 
0 
1 
2 
