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Show 402 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON APODAL BATRACHIANS. [May 21, I still think it desirable to retain the Apoda as an order distinct from the Caudata, in spite of the views expressed by Prof. Cope and the Drs. Sarasin. If the absence of limbs and the reduction of the tail were the only characteristic of the group, I should of course not hesitate to unite the Csecilians with the Urodeles ; but, to say nothing of the scales, the Caecilian skull presents features which are not shared by any of the tailed Batrachians, and the order can be defined by the cranial characters alone. The resemblance of the larval Ichthyophis to Amphiuma is, after all, superficial; and although, as I believe, the Apoda and Caudata may have evolved from a common stock, Amphiuma is certainly not the connecting form between the two, as Prof. Cope would have it, for we cannot well assume the scales, lost in the ITrodeles, to have reappeared in the Csecilians. I wish, furthermore, to justify the use of the name Apoda for the order often designated as Pseudophidia, Batrachophidia, Gym-nophiona, or Peromela. Unless obviously misleading, which is not the case in the present instance, the first-proposed name should supersede all others for higher groups as well as for genera and species, and "Apoda" has the benefit of the law of priority. In the first subdivision of the Batrachians into two families by Dumeril in 1806 (Zool. Anal. pp. 90-94) these groups are termed " Anoures" and " Urodeles" in French, Ecaudati and Gaudati in Latin. W h e n Dumeril's pupil, Oppell, in 1811 (Ordn. Rept. p. 72), added the Csecilians, he named the three groups Apoda, Ecaudata, and Caudata. The Latin form being the only one entitled to recognition in zoological nomenclature, it follows that the last mentioned names should be adopted for the three orders into which Batrachians are divided. Order APODA. No limbs. Tail vestigial or absent. Frontal bones distinct from parietals; palatines fused with maxillaries. Male with an intromittent copulatory organ. Fam. CECILIIDJE. Synopsis of the Genera. I. Cycloid scales imbedded in the skin. A. Eyes distinct or concealed under the skin. 1. T w o series of teeth in the lower jaw. a. Squamosal and parietal bones in contact. Tentacle conical, below and in front of the eye, usuallv much nearer the latter than the nostril; circular fold's angulate on the belly \ ICHTHYOPHIS. Tentacle globular, surrounded by a groove, in front of theeye 2. DERMOPHIS. Tentacle valvular, tentacular groove horseshoe-shaped, posterior to the nostril ' 3 HYPOGEOPHIS. Tentacle valvular, tentacular groove horseshoe-shaped below the nostril ' 4 (CECILIA, |