MOUNT LYELL SALAMANDER. Eurycea platycephala (Camp)

Field characters.—Length under five inches. Head broad and flat, wider than body at any point; tail shorter than body; small half-webs present between toes. (See pl. 60f.) Coloration dark chocolate with numerous lichen-like gray markings on upper surface and sides of body.

Occurrence.—One record; two specimens taken in head of Lyell Cañon at 10,800 feet altitude, July 18, 1915. Found in heather among rocks close to streams of water which issued from beneath snowbanks.

From a scientific standpoint the greatest event of the entire Yosemite survey was the discovery of a salamander new to science and belonging to a group (the genus Eurycea, earlier called Spelerpes) previously not known to occur in the Pacific coast region of North America.

In the middle of July, 1915, we established a collecting station near the head of Lyell Cañon, and lines of traps were run in various situations in order to ascertain the species of mammals occurring in the vicinity. We were particularly anxious to capture the Mountain Lemming Mouse and many traps were placed in patches of Sierran heather (Bryanthus breweri) where that mammal was believed to live. One mouse trap was placed by Mr. Charles L. Camp at the entrance of a small hole in the moist soil beside a large rock outcrop, under a patch of heather about one hundred feet in diameter. This location was on an east-facing slope at 10,800 feet altitude near the Donohue Pass trail and about one mile below the Lyell Glacier.

On the morning of July 18, as we were en route to ascend Mount Lyell, two of these remarkable salamanders were found in this one trap. The animals had evidently walked out of the hole simultaneously and directly into the trap. A stream of water issued from the snowbanks close by and disappeared in rock slides below. The patch of heather was in direct sunshine most of the day. No other specimens were obtained. (See Camp, 1916a, pp. 11-14, figs. 1-5.)

Other species of this group of salamanders, which occur in eastern North America, are known to be nocturnal in habits and to spend part of the larval (tadpole) stage of life in water. Whether or not the Mount Lyell Salamander conforms to these habits is unknown. Mountaineers visiting the alpine portions of the Yosemite region have the opportunity to discover many facts of great interest from a natural history standpoint relating to this novel species.