Issued March 14, 1906
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS
PLETHODON (PLETHODON VANDYKEI) FROM
MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON
BY JOHN VAN DENBURGH
Curator of the Department of Herpetology.
In a small collection of amphibians secured in Washington by Dr. Edwin Cooper Van Dyke, Curator of the Department of Entomology, is an apparently undescribed species of salamander, which I take pleasure in naming, in honor of its collector,
Plethodon vandykei sp. nov.
Diagnosis.—Similar in general appearance to Plethodon intermedius, but much larger and stouter; costal grooves 12-13; toes and fingers webbed, only 2 phalanges of third and fourth toes free; adpressed limbs separated by 1 costal interspace; tail but slightly compressed; paratoid well developed; a dorsal band, not red; lower surfaces black.
Type.—Cal. Acad. Sci. No. 6910, Paradise Valley, Mt. Rainier Park, Washington, Dr. E. C. Van Dyke, July 15-31, 1905.
Description.—General form similar to P. oregonensis, but body not quite so much flattened, tail less compressed, and limbs shorter and stouter; tail cylindro-conic, somewhat compressed in posterior half, nearly equal to length of head and body; head depressed, about width of widest part of body; snout broadly truncate from above, rounded in profile; eyes moderate, smaller than in P. oregonensis, rather prominent, separated anteriorly by nearly twice the length of the orbital slit; nostrils small, near corners of snout, separated by about their distance from pupil; subnasal groove descending nearly to margin of lip; line of lip descending slightly below corner of snout and ascending below posterior edge of orbit; palatine teeth in 2 slightly curved series beginning some distance behind and a little internal to the internal nares, converging obliquely backward, and scarcely separated on the median line; parasphenoid teeth in 1 patch throughout, separated from palatine teeth by an interval equal to distance from nostril to edge of lip; internal nares rather small; tongue large, ovate, not emarginate, attached along median line but free laterally and for a short distance behind; neck a little narrower than body, with large elongate parotoid gland divided by a longitudinal groove running posteriorly and downward from eye to gular fold, other grooves behind, above and in front of parotoid; a groove along vertebral line; costal grooves between limbs 12 on right, 13 on left, not continued to midline either above or below; limbs a little shorter and stouter than in P. oregonensis, anterior with 4 and posterior with 5 digits; digits rather short, with broad rounded ends each with a terminal pad below, inner shortest, third longest, second finger longer than fourth, second toe shorter than fourth which is but little shorter than third; web well developed, extending nearly to end of inner digits, 2 phalanges of third and fourth toes free, feet very broadly palmate; tail slender, slightly compressed in posterior two-thirds, with rather indefinite grooves on proximal half; skin shiny, but roughened above and laterally and pitted below by the mouths of small glands; adpressed limbs separated by about the distance between 2 costal grooves.