Volume 4 — DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS PLETHODON (PLETHODON VANDYKEI) FROM MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON

BY JOHN VAN DENBURGH

Curator of the Department of Herpetology.

In a small collection of amphibians secured in Washington by Dr. Edwin Cooper Van Dyke, Curator of the Department of Entomology, is an apparently undescribed species of salamander, which I take pleasure in naming, in honor of its collector,

Plethodon vandykei sp. nov.

Diagnosis.—Similar in general appearance to Plethodon intermedius, but much larger and stouter; costal grooves 12-13; toes and fingers webbed, only 2 phalanges of third and fourth toes free; adpressed limbs separated by 1 costal interspace; tail but slightly compressed; paratoid well developed; a dorsal band, not red; lower surfaces black.

Type.—Cal. Acad. Sci. No. 6910, Paradise Valley, Mt. Rainier Park, Washington, Dr. E. C. Van Dyke, July 15-31, 1905.

Description.—General form similar to P. oregonensis, but body not quite so much flattened, tail less compressed, and limbs shorter and stouter; tail cylindro-conic, somewhat compressed in posterior half, nearly equal to length of head and body; head depressed, about width of widest part of body; snout broadly truncate from above, rounded in profile; eyes moderate, smaller than in P. oregonensis, rather prominent, separated anteriorly by nearly twice the length of the orbital slit; nostrils small, near corners of snout, separated by about their distance from pupil; subnasal groove descending nearly to margin of lip; line of lip descending slightly below corner of snout and ascending below posterior edge of orbit; palatine teeth in 2 slightly curved series beginning some distance behind and a little internal to the internal nares, converging obliquely backward, and scarcely separated on the median line; parasphenoid teeth in 1 patch throughout, separated from palatine teeth by an interval equal to distance from nostril to edge of lip; internal nares rather small; tongue large, ovate, not emarginate, attached along median line but free laterally and for a short distance behind; neck a little narrower than body, with large elongate parotoid gland divided by a longitudinal groove running posteriorly and downward from eye to gular fold, other grooves behind, above and in front of parotoid; a groove along vertebral line; costal grooves between limbs 12 on right, 13 on left, not continued to midline either above or below; limbs a little shorter and stouter than in P. oregonensis, anterior with 4 and posterior with 5 digits; digits rather short, with broad rounded ends each with a terminal pad below, inner shortest, third longest, second finger longer than fourth, second toe shorter than fourth which is but little shorter than third; web well developed, extending nearly to end of inner digits, 2 phalanges of third and fourth toes free, feet very broadly palmate; tail slender, slightly compressed in posterior two-thirds, with rather indefinite grooves on proximal half; skin shiny, but roughened above and laterally and pitted below by the mouths of small glands; adpressed limbs separated by about the distance between 2 costal grooves.

A broad band extends along the whole dorsal surface from the snout to the tip of the tail. In the alcoholic specimen this band is dark clay-color, dotted with black on the upper surface of the head. It is broadest on the back of the head and narrowest above the anus. The upper surfaces of the limbs and the side of the snout are clay-color dotted with black. A black line runs from the eye to the nostril. The hands and feet are black dotted with clay-color. The chin and central gular region are white with a few scattered black dots. The sides of the neck and the sides and lower surfaces of the body and tail are intense black with a few scattered whitish dots on the belly and sides of tail and with a zone of crowded white dots along the sides of the neck and body.

Snout to anus 60

Front of anus to end of tail 56

Width of head 9

Nostril to orbit 2

Snout to orbit 4

Snout to gular fold 13

Snout to fore limb 17

Gular fold to anus 47

Axilla to groin 34

Adpressed limbs separated by 3

Fore limb 15½

Hind limb 18½

Heel to end of longest toe 7

Breadth of foot 6

San Francisco, California,

December 21, 1905.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Third Series

Zoology Vol. IV, No. 5

Issued March 14, 1906