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Show 624 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON THE [Nov. 17, Anz. 1891, p. 65). It has been found as high up as 5000 feet in Switzerland (Fatio, Vert. Suisse, iii. p. 362) and 6500 feet in the Pyrenees. In Spain and Portugal it is represented by a distinct variety (var. bosca, Lataste). Its tadpole is one of the most useful for anatomical and physiological purposes, both on account of its size and the facility with which it can be procured, being abundant wherever it exists and found all through the year, often remaining two years before transforming (Wiedersheim, Zool. Anz. 1878, p. 104). The breeding-season lasts from the spring to the end of summer. The tadpole, which does not leave the egg until after the loss of the (uncommonly large) external gills, is usually deposited in small reservoirs, cow-ponds, flooded quarries, pits in brick-fields, &c. For accounts of the breeding-habits of Alytes obstetricans, consult A. de PIsle du Dreneuf, Ann. Sc. Nat. 6, iii. 1876, art. 7, and Heron Royer, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 671. 19. ALYTES CISTERNASII, Bosca. (Plate XLVII. fig. 8.) I am indebted to M. Ed. Bosca, the discoverer of this very distinct species, for several tadpoles, from the Sierra Morena, at different stages of development. The largest measures 69 millim. : body 20, width of body 15; tail 42, depth of tail 14. I regret to be unable to detect any character by which this tadpole may be surely distinguished from that of A. obstetricans. Heron Royer and Van Bambeke state that the labial teeth are less distinctly arranged in double rows, and their figure, in fact, represents the second upper series only as formed of a double row. Bedriaga, on the contrary, describes the first upper series as with two rows of teeth and the second with two or three, the first and second lower series with two rows and the third with three, just as is usually the case in A. obstetricans. I find constantly two rows in the first upper aud first lower series, two or three in the second upper, two in the second lower, and two or three iu the third lower. Bedriaga adds that the tail is shorter than in A. obstetricans, only about once and a half the length of the body ; this difference, again, is not borne out by our specimens, as may be seen from tbe measurements given above. Tail with small black spots, more crowded and often forming vermiculations on the muscular portion of the tail, the space occupied by the lateral groove being, however, usually free from spots. The tadpole of A. cisternasii, which inhabits Spain and Portugal, has been figured by Bosca (An. Soc. Esp. x. 1881, pi. ii. figs. 4-6) and described by Heron Royer and Van Bambeke (I. c. p. 289, pi. xxii. fig. 5) and by Bedriaga (Larves des Batraciens de Portugal, Coi'mbre, 1891, p. 14). It is to be found all the year through (Bosca, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1880, p. 253). |
