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Show 1896.] BATRACHIANS FROM THE CAUCASUS. 553 It will be seen that the new Frog agrees wdth its Western congener in the large frontoparietal fontanelle ; the absence of palatine bones; the very strongly dilated transverse processes of the sacral vertebra and the forward direction of the three anterior to them; the curved coracoids and precoracoids ; the bony style to the sternum; the fusion of the two outer bones of the second row in the carpus ; and especially in the fusion of the astragalus and calcaneum to a single bone, resembling the fused radius and ulna or tibia and fibula of tailless Batrachians. [Since the reading of m y paper, I have received, July 24th, through the courtesy of the author, M . Nikolski, a copy of the description of a new Pelobatoid, named Pelodytopsis caucasica. The genus and species are established on two female specimens from Lagodekhi, Transcaucasia, obtained by M . Mlokossewicz, apparently the same collector who first discovered Salamandra caucasica. This Frog is no doubt the same as m y Pelodytes caucasicus, which has priority, M . Nikolski's paper being signed June 1896. There is no foundation for the new genus, the species being, as I have stated above, very closely related to Pelodytes punctatus.] SALAMANDRA CAUCASICA. (Plate XXII. fig. 1.) Exaeretus caucasicus,W?iga,'Rev. et M a g . Zool. 1876,p. 326, pl.xvi. Salamandra caucasica, Bouleng. Cat. Batr. Caud. p. 5 (1882); Boettg. Ber. Senck. Ges. 1892, p. 132. Thanks to Dr. Eadde, the British Museum now possesses a good series of specimens of this rare Salamander, from Mount Lomis, 7000 feet, from which the following description is drawn up. The series of palatine teeth extend forwards far beyond the choanal; they converge and are narrowly separated from each other in front, after being angularly bent and enclosing a rhom-boidal space; in the middle the series are closely approximate and parallel; behind they strongly diverge again; in some specimens the angular bend does not exist and each series m a y be described as S-shaped. The tongue is large, covering nearly the whole floor of the mouth, free at the sides only. The head is much depressed, and the eyes moderately large and prominent; the snout is semicircular in outline and does not project beyond the lower jaw. The parotoid glands are flat, not sharply limited as in the other species of the genus. A strong gular fold is present. The body is much elongate and feebly depressed, with 12 strong costal grooves between axilla and groin; the skin is quite smooth and shiny, without any warts. The limbs meet or slightly overlap when pressed against the body. The digits are moderately elongate and depressed ; the first toe is the shortest, the fourth the longest, slightly longer than the third, the fourth and fifth are equal. The tail is subcylindrical, slightly compressed, and longer than head and body. PEOC. ZOOL. Soc-1896, No. XXXVI. 36 |
