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Show 1886.] ON TWO EUROPEAN SPECIES OK BOMBINATOR. 499 4. On two European Species of Bombinator. By G. A. BOULENGER, F.Z.S. [Received September 28, 1886.] (Plate L.) Two distinct forms of Bombinator occur in Germany. The fact has been known to me for many years, having, when a boy, been struck by the very different appearance of specimens obtained by me at Dresden as compared with the familiar form from Belgium and the Rhine. But it was only during a recent journey to Germany that I was enabled, by examining a larger material, to form a decisive opinion that the two forms are entitled to rank as species. German authors, so far as can be gathered from their publications, have never seized upon the distinction, although individual variations have caused a var. brevipes (Blasius), Koch, to be established. Possibly Fitzinger was the first to separate the two forms correctly by distinguishing a Bombinator pachypus, from the mountains of Italy, from the true B. igneus of Laurenti. However, perhaps through misrepresentation of Fitzinger's views, nothing but confusion was added by Bonaparte, who, as is well known, introduced that author's M S . name into nomenclature1. The result of my search into the synonymy of Bombinator is that Linnaeus's name Rana bombina and Laurenti's Bufo igneus apply respectively to the two species now under consideration. The words of Linnaeus (Faun. Suec. 2nd ed. p. 101, 1761), " abdomine luteo nigro maculato," and those of Laurenti (Syn. Rept. p. 29,1/68) "infra albido-c&rulescens, punctatus maculis Iceteminiatis," seem to settle the point; and if, as I have reason to believe, the paler-bellied Frog occurs in Sweden and the brighter one in Austria, " in paludibus Danubialibus," it is settled beyond doubt. Although Rosel, as prse-Linnean and polynomialist, has no claim in matters of nomenclature, it is well to say that his, the first scientific, account of Bombinator refers to the form which I now name B. bombinus. It must also be added that B. pachypus and B. brevipes are undoubtedly to be regarded as synonyms of B. bombinus, and that the sacrum and coccyx figured by Gene (Syn. Rept. Sard.) as that of B. igneus, and which has lately been the subject of some discussion, is clearly that of a Pelobates. I may now pass on to the distinctive characters of the two species. 1. BOMBINATOR BOMBINUS, L. (Plate L. fig. 1.) Habit stouter, snout rather shorter, digits thicker, warts stronger and more crowded than in B. igneus. The length of the leg or crus equals or exceeds the distance between the inner metatarsal tubercle and the extremity of the fourth toe. Male with black nuptial excrescences under the second and third toes, sometimes also 1 Bonaparte's figure was evidently not executed from life, and therefore no importance is to be attached to the coloration attributed to his B. pachypus. * 33* |
