716 AMPHIBIA—MENOPOMIDA. 
cartilaginous; pelvic and pectoral limbs well developed; anterior digits four; fourth 
finger with three phalanges. 
*Branchial apertures persistent. : : : : : ; : MENOPOMA., 
“Branchial apertures closed in adult; extralimital. . . . . CRYPTOBRANCHUS. 
GENUS MENOPOMA. Harlan. 
Palatine teeth in a parabolic curve between the inner nares, almost parallel to those 
of the maxillary ; tongue transversely oval; head depressed; eyessmall; parotidsnone ; 
branchial apertures upon the side of the neck persistent; skin naked; limbs short and 
thick; toes four in front and five behind, the latter membranous ; tail compressed, 
shorter than the body. 
*MENOPOMA ALLEGHANIENSIS Harlan. 
Heli-Bender or Viud-Deval. 
Protonopsis horrida, BARTON, BARNES, COPE, 
Abranchus alleghaniensis, HARLAN. 
Cryptobranchus salamandroides, LEUCKART. 
Hurycea macronata, RAFINESQUE. 
Molge gigantea, in part, MERREM. 
+ Menopoma fusca, HOLBROOK. 
Salamandria horrida, et gigantea, or maxima, BARTON. 
Salamandra alleghanensis, MIcHAUX. 
Menopoma alleghaniensis, CopE. 
Body somewhat elongated, thick and strong; color slate with dark spots; toes five ; 
fingers four; two outer toes with large membranous fringes; a broad expansion of the 
skin on the outer side of each limb; bedy with a cutaneous longitudinal fold on each 
side; tail long, very much compressed laterally, presenting a blade form appearance ; 
head very broad and strongly depressed ; muzzle rounded ; nostrils small, well defined ; 
inner nares large; mouth a parabolic curve; tongue large, fleshy, broad, filling the 
whole lower jaw, and free anteriorly. Length, 2 feet. 
Habitat, Ohio and Alleghany Rivers, and North Carolina, ‘‘all tributaries of the Mis- 
sissippi.” Not of the Great Lakes. 
The Hell-bender is said to be very voracious, and feeds upon worms, 
cray fish, fishes, and aquatic reptiles. They also shed a membrane 
probably corresponding to the external layer of the skin. Grote ob- 
served them with this rolled up in the mouth as ifin the act of swallow- 
ing it, and he believed that he perceived in another case the animal 
doing the swallowing. 
A similar shedding of the epidermis having been observed in 
Spelerpes porphyriticus, Dactylethra, and Cyclorhamphus, it becomes probable 
that the remaining forms of this order also undergo a periodical, moult- 
*For Myology see Mivart’s article, Proe. Zool. Soc., London, 1869. 
+t Cope makes Menapoma fuscum distinet with headwaters of the Tennessee as its habitat. 
