| OCR Text |
Show 1895.] DB. J. DE BEDEIAGA ON THE PYBENEAN NEWT. 155 of the belly in the male, or orange without or with very few blackish round spots. Lower edge of the tail yellowish in the male, orange or reddish in the female. Measurements (typical form). millim. millim. Total length 113 128 Length of head 18 16 Breadth of head 13 11 From end of snout to anus 61 61 Length of tail 52 67 Depth of tail 7 6 Fore limb 18 17f Hind limb 19 18 Sexual Characters. Male.-Tail shorter thau head and body. Cloacal lips grey, strongly swollen and forming a subglobulous prominence ; the longitudinal cleft extending over its posterior part 2 Belly with a narrow yellow, rarely orange median zone, generally spotted with black or dark grey, especially on the hinder portion. Female.-Tail as long or longer than head and body. Anal prominence orange, conical or pear-shaped, much produced, directed backwards, with a short longitudinal or rather vertical cleft on the summit of the cone, looking entirely backwards. Belly with a wide orange or reddish median area, which is generally immaculate. Osteological Characters. The two series of palatine teeth commence on a line with the choanae (Plate VI. fig. 3). The fronto-temporal arch is bony (fig. 2). The quadrate projects sidewards and looks at the same time rather backwards than forwards. The crista ossis vomero-palatini is hardly developed. The septum nasi is formed by a single cartilaginous plate. [In all European newts with the exception of Molge aspera aud M. waltli there is an almost entirely osseous and double septum nasi with but a small terminal cartilaginous portion, which separates it from the cartilaginous ethmoidal plate. It is formed by the well-developed ascending process of the premaxillary and the crests of the vomero-palatines which rise vertically. The almost wholly unossified septum nasi of M. aspera resembles that of M. waltli. It is merely a single, well-developed, thickish, cartilaginous wall, which extends beyond the opening between the vomero-palatines for the duct of the so-called " intermaxillary gland " and keeps the nasal cavities 1 The anal prominence appears sometimes in the males of the rugous variety very obtusely conical in winter. |
