Edward H. Taylor

A new ambystomoid salamander adapted to brackish water

THE presence of common salt in water, in any considerable quantity, renders it unfit for the development of the eggs and larvae of amphibians. Marine waters have consequently proved a strong barrier to the distribution of this group of animals. A very few amphibians have eggs and larvae capable of development in waters having some quantity of sodium chloride in solution, while many species appear to develop in alkaline waters of varying concentration. A. S. Pearse (1911) found tadpoles in water in crab holes which were covered daily by the tide water from Manila Bay. In consequence the water had a fairly strong salt concentration. Pearse does not mention the species, but I presume it to be Rana moodiei Taylor, since I have found its tadpoles near Manila, in brackish water in crab holes, though above the tidemark. On one occasion I captured an adult on the edge of the beach, from under a piece of coral, where it sat partially submerged. One might suspect that certain species with a wide archipelagic distribution might be more tolerant of sodium chloride concentrations than continental forms. The presence of larval newts in brackish water was recently reported in England (Spurway, 1943, and Hardy, 1943). Weismann (1878) was under the impression that the habitat of Siredon mexicana is brackish water. I believe that this is an error, since both Lake Xochomilco and Chalco are fresh water lakes (Chalco is now almost entirely drained and cultivated). It is true that there are bodies of brackish water in the Valle de Mexico but Siredon mexicana is not to be found in them. I do not believe any of these bodies of brackish water have other ambystomids. The discovery by Mr. Dyfrig McHattie Forbes of a salamander living in the saline waters of Lake Alchichica, Puebla, Mexico, is thus of especial interest and importance. It proves to be a species differing from other known forms, and is described below. Laguna Alchichica is one of a series of three small lakes in the high plateau region lying to the northwest of the great volcano Citlaltepetl (Orizaba). The region about them is flat and all seem to have been formed by a sinking of the surface crust. They do not seem to be crater lakes. The lakes differ in level, in the salt content of their waters, and in their fauna and flora. The actual depth of the water is not known in any of them. Laguna Quecholac and Laguna de la Mina Preciosa contain potable fresh water. They support a heavy growth of rushes about their edges, with many algae in the water. Each lake has, at least, one species of fish, and one salamander. Laguna Alchichica, with water distinctly salty to the taste, has no fresh water rushes or algae, and only submerged seaweedlike plants were observed, growing on rocks. There is a single species of fish,1 and the salamander here described.

New and Rare Oriental Serpents

Near the edge of this field there was another small pond which presumably received drift from application. Dead animals observed were a cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), a cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus), 2 watersnakes (Natrix rhombifera), a leopard frog (Rana pipiens), and many insects including a number of large hydrophilid beetles. Living green tree frogs, leopard frogs, and red-eared turtles were present. A similar case of mass mortality was observed 7 mi. SW of Morgan City, Leflore Co., Mississippi which involved large numbers of fish, snakes, turtles, frogs, and several egrets. Several living Acris crepitans were found. Fowlers toads were constantly encountered in treated cotton fields in the

Two New Ambystomid Salamanders from Chihuahua

MONG the novelties obtained by Mr. Irving Knobloch at Mojarachic, AChihuahua, Mexico, are two species of salamanders which were collected from a small mountain stream at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. Collections were made at two different times. In 1939 he obtained the types of Ambystoma rosaceum, and in the spring of 1940 he obtained a second species from the same stream, here described as Ambystoma fluvinatum. The type of the later species has lost the dorsal fin, but the gills show no signs of disappearing. Mr. Knobloch was unable to learn of any salamander living on land in the region where they were collected. It is possible that neither species makes a complete transformation.

Notes on Two Specimens of the Rare Snake Ficimia cana and the Description of a New Species of Ficimia from Texas

THE species Ficimia cana, described by Cope in 1860 from a specimen collected near Fort Buchanan, Arizona, by Dr. B. J. D. Irwin, has remained a great rarity in collections. Cope, in his Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes, records a second specimen taken by H. W. Henshaw in southern Arizona in 1873. Ruthven reports a specimen found dead on the shore of Lake Walters at the White Sands, West of Alamogordo, New Mexico, in the summer of 1906. Boulenger lists a specimen from El Paso, Texas, but no date of collection is indicated. Van Denburgh mentions still another specimen from Montezuma Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. The following descriptions are based on two specimens which were collected in New Mexico in 1929 by John Suarez Wright and myself. Number 6617, Kansas University Museum of Birds and Mammals. Collected by Edward H. Taylor and John Suarez Wright, 10 miles north of Florida, Luna County, New Mexico, August 4, 1929, about midnight with light. Adult male. Unlike the specimens mentioned by Cope, and shown in his figure, there are two nasal scales separated from the first labial. The groove from the nostril to the suture of the second labial is merely the posterior part of a suture between the nasal and the front labial while the anterior part is fused with the first labial in Copes specimen. In the characters of the internasal, the prefrontals and all the other head scales, the specimen is practically identical with Copes figure. The dorsal bands on body and head are 39; on the tail 12, each usually continuous, but occasionally broken, always narrowed laterally; -on the sides narrow elongate broken spots occur between the bands. The belly is immaculate save for a few flecks of brown on the scales of the posterior part of the body and under tail. The posterior pair of chin shields is so small and separated so widely that one distinguishes them with difficulty. Ventrals 134, subcaudals 35. The anal is divided. Scale rows 19-17. The total length is 178 mm; the tail 48 mm. Number 6616, Kansas University Museum. This specimen was collected at the same time and place as the preceding. It is a female and not improbably the mate of the male listed above, as it was taken about fifty feet from the other specimen only a few minutes later. In squamation of the

Two New Lizards of the Genus Leiolopisma from Mexico, with Comments on Another Mexican Species

AMONG the collections made by Dr. Hobart Smith and myself in Mexico, I find two forms of Leiolopisma which I believe to be new. One of these, Leiolopisma silvicolum, is a lowland, arboreal species, the other, Leiolopisma forbesorum, is a terrestrial, plateau form. These diminutive skinks are difficult objects of study, since in many forms the typical equipment of head scales is almost generic in its fixity, and the same typical pattern may be presented again and again in forms occurring even on different continents. It becomes necessary to look for specific characters in the scales of the nuchal and temporal regions as well as on the anterior part of the head, and to scrutinize carefully body squamation and proportions to find characters to define two forms which the eye can discern as different from their tout ensemble. Then too it is necessary to consider the age of the specimen since the relative body proportions change with age. This is especially true of the length of limb in proportion to axilla to groin measurement, the limbs being proportionally longer in the young than in the old. Most species having the adpressed legs separated in the adult may have them touching or overlapping in the young.

A New Species of the Lizard Genus Lepidophyma from Mexico

Lepidophyma sylvatica, sp. nov. TYPE.-EHT-HMS No. 16259; 7 mi. north of Zacualtipan, Hidalgo, Aug. 10, 1938; E. H. Taylor, collector. PARATYPES.-Nos. 16260, 16261, topotypes; same date and collector. DIAGNOSIS.-Related to Lepidophyma smithii, but differing in the absence of vertical rows of enlarged trihedral tubercles, and the presence of enlarged paired spots at base of tail. Females with smooth, males with keeled, ventral scales. A skinfold from axilla to groin. DESCRIPTION OF TYPE.-Head not flattened; rostral plate barely visible above; anterior nasals meeting in the median line behind rostral; these followed by a large azygous (frontonasal) scale in contact laterally with nasals and anterior loreal; a pair of prefrontals separated by two small intercalated scales, the anterior of which is the smaller (this condition is very probably anomalous, as the two paratypes show the prefrontals meeting on the median line and lacking the intercalated scales); a pair of frontals (Boulenger) between and projecting slightly over the orbit; a pair of frontoparietals and an interparietal, the latter bearing the pineal eye; these followed by a large pair of parietal scales; three temporal scales border the posterior head scales; a small anterior temporal followed by a much larger temporal scale, which in turn is followed by another small scale.

A New Lampropeltis from Western Mexico

length of head, 15 mm.; arm, 27.5 mm.; leg, 64 mm.; tibia, 22.3 mm.; foot, 29. REMARKS.-The species, judged by the character of the feet and tubercles, is related to the augusti group of the genus that includes augusti, latrans, laticeps and cactorum. It differs however in having longer, slenderer legs, and a slender, rather than a toad-like, body. The specimen is a female, so I cannot say whether vocal sacs are present in the male.

On North American Snakes of the Genus Leptotyphlops

A specimen (KU 6665), which I collected at Gila Bend, Maricopa Co., Arizona, has the following characters: Dorsal scale count 293; total length, 137.5 mm.; tail, 8 mm.; width of body, 2.2 mm.; ratio of width to length, 60; tail length in body length, 17.1 times. Nasal completely divided; lower labials 5-4. A single labial between ocular and nasal. The specimen is very light and little or no pigmentation can be discerned.

A New Bromeliad Frog

at early metamorphosis (legs 12 mm. long), the synotic tectum extends farther forward (fig. 1 C). The frontoparietals have grown backward partly over the cartilage, and also reach forward to the anterior end of the cerebral hemispheres. At this stage each frontoparietal shows an adjustment of its shape to that of the brain (fig. 1 D). The posterior third is slightly convex, fitting over the optic lobe, and the anterior half likewise bulges upward a trifle, over the cerebral hemisphere. This apparently accounts for Parkers mistake, since when light reflects from the wet surface of these bones during dissection it looks as if each were formed of two separate pieces, of the same proportions as shown in his figure. The present work does not establish the real homology of the single pair of existing bones. That probably cannot be done until fossil ancestors of existing Salientia are discovered which show either the loss of parietals, the loss of frontals, or an ancient fusion of the two which took place so early that there is no longer any sign of its occurrence in ontogeny. Until then it may be as well to continue using the familiar term frontoparietal, remembering that it has no justification in development. Professor Robert Broom, the South African paleontologist, suggested this inquiry in a lecture during his 1937 visit to the United States, and credit for the idea should consequently be his.

A New Hylid of the Genus Agalychnis from Southwestern Mexico

IN the Mexican collections made in 1949 and 1950 by Mr. J. R. Alcorn for the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, are two frogs belonging to the genus Agalychnis which appear to be undescribed. I take pleasure in naming the species for its discoverer in recognition of the splendid collections of vertebrates he has brought together for the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History.