First lesson in zoology : adapted for use in schools . ). • tailed, with larger eyes; there are no spiracles; theybreathe mainly by their lungs, but in part by their skin. The genius Amblystoma comprises our largest salaman-ders ; they are terrestrial when adult, living in damp placesand feeding on insects. The larvae retain their gills to aperiod when they are as large or even larger ttan the pa- 174 FIBST LBSSOm m ZOOLOGY. rent. The most interesting of all the salamanders is theAmhlystoma mavortiiim, whose larva is called the Axolotl(Fig. 180). This larva is larger than the adult, which live
First lesson in zoology : adapted for use in schools . ). • tailed, with larger eyes; there are no spiracles; theybreathe mainly by their lungs, but in part by their skin. The genius Amblystoma comprises our largest salaman-ders ; they are terrestrial when adult, living in damp placesand feeding on insects. The larvae retain their gills to aperiod when they are as large or even larger ttan the pa- 174 FIBST LBSSOm m ZOOLOGY. rent. The most interesting of all the salamanders is theAmhlystoma mavortiiim, whose larva is called the Axolotl(Fig. 180). This larva is larger than the adult, which liveson land, sometimes being about a third of a metre (12inches) in length, the adult being twenty centimetres (8inches) long. The axolotl, or siredon, abounds in the lakes of theEocky Mountain plateau from Montana to Mexico, from analtitude of 4000 to 8000 or 9000 feet. Late in the summerthe siredons at Oomo Lake, Wyoming, where we have ob-served them, transform in large numbers into the adultstage, leaving the water and hiding under sticks, etc., on. Fia. 180.—Siredon or larval Salamander. land, still larger numbers remain in the lake and breedthere. The change from the larva to the adult consists in theabsorption of the gills, which disappear in about four days;meanwhile the tail-fins begin to be absorbed, the costalgrooves become marked, the head grows smaller, the eyeslarger, more protuberant, and the third day after the gillsbegin to be absorbed the creature becomes dark, spotted,and very active and restless, leaving the water. Experiments show that the legs and tail of the axolotl, asof other larval salamanders, may be reproduced. The larvalays eggs as well as the adult salamander. The Tritons, or water-newts, represented by our common,pretty spotted-newt {Diemyctylus viridescens, Fig. 177), iscommon in sluggish brooks; it lives on insects. SALAMANDER. FROG, AND OTHER AMPHIBIANS. 176 The Blind Snahe.—Its body is snake-like, being longand cylindrical. We have seen that
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1894
