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Show 1 9 0 5 .] AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES. 203 Spelerpes.-This large genus, composed of about 20 species, ranges from Massachusetts into North-western South America. At least 10 species live in Mexico, 9 of them south of a line drawn from Guadalajara to Tuxpan on the Atlantic; some of them extend into Guatemala and Costa Rica. S. yucatanicus in Yucatan. A few occur as far south as Peru; one, S. infuscatus, inhabits Hayti, and S. fascus lives in Sardinia and Northern Italy. The distribution of the Mexican species is important. The Aztec name is " Tlaconete " = little land creature. S. cephalicus, described by Cope from " North-eastern Mexico." No Spelerpes seem to occur in Texas ; the nearest American species, S. multiplicatus, lives in Arkansas ; S. orizcibensis and S. lineolus, the latter with tiny, reduced limbs, are known only from the mountain of Orizaba, S. orizcibensis ranging between 8000 to 12,000 feet. S. leprosus, of which gibbicauclus Blatchley is a not unfrequent individual variation, is common in the mixed and pine forests of the mountain of Orizaba, up to 12,000 feet. It has also been recorded from the north slope of Popocatepetl, 9000 feet, and from the mountains of Jalapa. S. morio from " Jalapa," and from Tlalpam, which lies between Mexico City and Lake Xocliimilco, in flat, sandy, moist terrain, with meadows and willows. It appears again far in the south, in Guatemala and Costa Rica. S. chiropterus. Mountain of Orizaba, from the town, 4000 feet up to near 10,000 feet; " Jalapa," and Cuernavaca which has an elevation of 5000 feet. " Vera Cruz " must be left as a doubtful locality. S. rufescens is recorded from " Orizaba," Cordoba, Vera Cruz, Tehuantepec, Chiapas, and Tabasco; all in the Tierra Caliente, except the first locality. S. variegatus ranges from the Valley of Mexico, Orizaba (from 9000 feet downwards), Jalapa, Cordoba, right through the forest of the Tierra Caliente and through the whole of Central America t( Costa Rica. I found it on Orizaba mountain, as well as at San Juan Evangelista, which lies scarcely higher than 100 feet above the sea, in the same ground with Dermophis. S. uniformis, with reduced limbs like S. lineolus, described from Costa Rica, elevation of 5000 feet, is said also to have come from " Vera Cruz." Lastly, S. belli : mountains of Jalapa, Orizaba, Mexico, Zacualtipan, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Sierra de Nayarit; and at Omilteme, west of Chilpancingo. This species alone has found its way across the plateau, following the belt of alluvial deposits described elsewhere (p. 237). With the exception of this transverse belt, the distribution of Mexican Newts coincides closely with the broad band of Cretaceous limestone which extends from Nuevo Leon to the Isthmus, with intricate but almost continuous patches verging from Cordoba and Orizaba south-westwards to Chilpancingo. This limestone terrain was the only one available |
