Description of a new genus and species of blind tailed batrachians from the subterranean waters of Texas

DESCEIPTIOX OF A NEW GEXUS AND SrECIES OF BLIND TAILED 15ATEACHIANS FROM THE SrBTERRANEAN WATERS OF TEXAS.

By Leonhard Stejneger,

Curator nf ^tlieDepartmentof Biptihsand Batrachiana.

Four years ago

it

was my

goodfortuneto aunoimce thediscovery of a blind cave salamander (Typhlotriton si)ela'i(,s) on our continent, wLicliI then characterizedas

"one

ofthe most important and interest- ing-herpetologicalevents of recentyears.''^{^}

The

animal tobe described

now

isalsoa blind salamander-like batrachian,

and

itsdiscovery iseven

more

important andinteresting than theformer.

From

an artesian well,188^feet deep, recently bored at

San

JMarcos, Texas,bytheUnited States FishCommission,

more

than a dozenspeci-

mens

of a most remarkable tailed batrachian have been expelled, togetherwith

numerous

crustaceans, no lessremarkable, which will be descril)ed

by

Mr. Benedict in these "Proceedings."

Theseanimals,

by

their waiit of external eyes

and

their wliite color, atonceproclaimedtlieniselvesascave-dwellers,buttheir extraordina;

y

proportions, absolutely uni(pie inthe order to which they belong",sug- gestunusual conditions of life, which alone can have produced such l^rofound differences.

The

moststartlingexternal featureisthe length

and

slenderness of the legs, like which there is nothing

among

the tailedbatrachiansthusfarknown.

While

thenormal

number

offingers andtoes is present (4and 5), ^itis worthyof note that not onlj-is.there a great variation in therelative length of these members, but even the length of the legs inthe

same

animal

may

differas

much

as twomilli- meters.

Viewed

in connection with the well-developed, finned swim- ming-tail, it can be safely

assumed

that these extraordinarily slender

and

elongated legs are not used forlocomotion,

and

the conviction is irresistible that in the inky darknessof the subterranean waters they serve the animal as ^feelers, their development being thusparallel to

'PreliminaryDescription of a

New

Genusanil Species ofBlind Cave Salamauder fromNorth America,Proc. U.S.Nat.Mus.,XV,pp.115-117,pi.ix.

-The deptliofthiswell in the Advance Sheet, April 15, ISHC,was given as 181

lei't,whichhas sinceheenfoundtoheincorrect.

Proceedingstil'flicUnitedStatesNationalMuseum,\'(il.\\'III—Xo.1088.

[Advance.slieetsof thispaper werepublished April15,1836.]

G19

620 NEW BLIND TAILED BATRACHIANS—STEJNEGEB.

the excessive elongation of the auteunje of the crustaceans, ofwhichI

have been informed

by

Mr.Benedict.

The

externalgills atonce suggestedthatthese animalsmightbe only

larviie.

The

factthatoneof

them

con tainedlarge eggs,

and

that another expelled three eggs after being caught,

was

no positive proof to the contrary, l>ut in conjunction with the affinityof the _{species to} other forms

known

to havepersistent gills throughoutlife, it

makes

it abso- lutely certain that

we

haveto do with an adult

and

final animal.

A

rough skeleton has been made,

and

studied _{as well as}the short timesince itspreparationwouldallow. It istheintention ofthewriter later to present,inconjunctionwith Mr. F.A.Lucas, adetailed descrip- tion oftheanatomy,

and

anelaboratecomparisonwithalliedforms. So farasourstudies

have

proceeded, theyindicate that theanimalbelongs to the superfamily Proteoideiv, which embraces the Proteus, the elon- gated,eel-shaped,butlikewise blind,cavespecies,fromthesubterranean watersofthe region atthe

head

ofthe Adriatic Sea,and thewater-dog or

mud-puppy

{Xecturus), with _{functionaleyes}

and

lesselongate body, ofour

own

continent. Sufficeitto say at the present time, that Mr.

Lucas

and

I have

made

out the presence of

what

appears to bethe intercalaryhone: maxillaries are apparently wanting; intermaxillaries

and

mandible are toothed. In addition, it

may

be asserted that the

new

genus here introduced is

more

nearly allied to Xectnnis than to Proteus, though betweenit

and

the former thereisa vast gap.

TYPHLOMOLGE,' new genus.

Tongue

moderate, anterior border free; vomero-palatiue _{teeth in} a strong series; limbs excessively elongated; lingers four,toes five; eyes entirely concealedunderthe skin; gill rami long, simple, fimbria' long

and

slender.

Tijpe.

—

TyphhmoJgerathhiini, Stejneger.

TYPHLOMOLGE RATHBUNI,

_{new species.}

Diagnosis.—

Head

large, nearly as long _as distance between axilla

and

groin; snout greatly depressed, nearly square anteriorly; limbs excessively slender and' elongated,

hand

overlapping kiiee

and

foot overlappingelbow

when

adpressed to the side of the body; tail com- pressed, finned, pointed; colornearly white.

Habitat.— Snhterrduennwaters near

San

Marcos, Texas.

Type.—

1^0. 22086, U.S.N.M.;

San

Marcos, Texas; end of Februarv

1S9().

'

description of typespecimen.—YLead excessivelylarge

and

broad, the distancefrom tipof snout tobaseofuppergillbranch but slightly less

than distancebetween axilla

and

groin, itswidth equal toone-half the latter distance; snout very

much

depressed, broad, truncated, nearly

' TypMos, blind, andmolge, thenameof asalamandroidgeuns.

rUOCEEDIXGS OF

TTTJC

XAriOXAL

MrSIC^^^.

621

square anteriorly; nostrils widely separatedatthe cornersofthe trun cated snout, theirdistance greaterthan thatbetween the eyes, wliicli are deeply hidden under the slcin and onlyvisibleas

two

small dark spots;

mouth

comparativelysmall,withstronglydevelopedlabial lobes;

bodyshort

and

slender, the distance between axilla and groin being but slightly greater than length of head and only one-half the length of thetail, its width being

much

less than that of the head

and

even

less than that ofthe snout; limbs excessively slender

and

long, of nearlyevenlength,aboutone-fifthof thetotal length; fingersoverlap- pingknee

and

toesoverlapping elbow

when

adpressed to the sidesof the body; fingers four, toes five; short, slender, free, with rounded

tips,their relativelengthvariable; tailcomparatively long,nearlyone- half the totallength,

much

compressed, finnedbelow

and

particularly strongly above, theend pointed.

Skin smooth; a verystrongly

marked

gular fold; a well

marked

ver- tebral groove; eleven costal grooves. Teeth on intermaxillaries

and

mandible ^small; thevomero-palatine teeth large, decreasingin size at both ends. Crill branches long

and

slender, the middle one longer;

fimbria' long

and

slender,'not bushy.

Color nearly white, semitransparent, the upper surfaces densely sprinkledwith minutepale graydots.

Dimensions.

—

^{Total length, 102}

mm.;

^{from snout to anus, 53; from}

snoutto gular fold, 16; from snout to beginning of uppergillbranch,

L*i*; widthof head,13; width of snout,0; distancebetween nostrils, 7;

distance between eyes, G; distance between axilla

and

groin, 25; fore limb, 20; hind limb, 20; longest finger, 2.3; longest toe, 2.5; widthof limbs, 1.7; tail,11.

Itake great pleasurein dedicating tliis most interesting noveltyto

]\Ir.Eichard Eathbun,inrecognition ofhis eminentservices to science, bothas anaturalist

and

astheheadof the ^scientificstaffof theUnited StatesCommission of Fish

and

Fisheries.