AN ALBINO SALAMANDER, SPELERPES BILINEATUS.
By Arthur M. Banta and Ross vViken Gortner.Of the Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor, Nevj York.
In May, 1912, while collecting amphibian material in the field thewriters took an albinotic (a xanthic) larva of Spelerpes hilineafvsGreen. The larva was a year old and measured about 4.3 centi-meters in length. It was colored a uniform yellowish orange, exceptfor the gills, which were reddish from contained blood, and the eyes,which appeared opaque white. While this individual entirely lackedblack pigment in the skin, eyes, and connective tissue as well, it hadthe normal amount of yellow pigment. In fact the animal was soconspicuously yellow that it seemed hard to believe that it did nothave more than the normal amount of this pigment; but a closeexamination of the skin of normal individuals convinces one thatthere is a large amount of the yeUow pigment, but that it is prettythoroughly masked by the large amount of melanin present.The color of this albino larva was recorded by using one of theMilton Bradley color tops. The exact shade of the body color wasmost nearly matched with the following percentages: Black, 39;white, 9; orange, 28i; and yellow, 23|. A normal of the same sizeand apparent stage of development was matched on the head regionwith: Black, 74^; white, 8; orange, 4; yellow, 13 J. The bodyregion was recorded as: Black, 85|; white, 4; orange, 2; and yellow,8|. The percentage of black given in the color record of the albinodoes not indicate partially concealed black pigment, but was neces-sary in order to obtain the proper density of the orange yellow.The albino was kept in a large battery jar provided with water,sand, and stones, and was fed upon small annelids and slender strandsof beef. It took food very well and grew rapidl}?-. It began toresorb its gills early in the following October and completed itstransformation in two or three weeks. During transformation itbecame distinctly more orange in color than it had previously beenand there appeared two distinct dorsal lines not evident before.These bands were at either side of the median line running backfrom just in front of the shoulder region to well along the base of theProceedings U- S. National Museum, Vol. 49? No. 2112. 377
378 PROCEEDINaS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.49.
tail, in the position occupied by the heavily pigmented bands in thenormal. They were of a pecuhar dull opaque yellow appearance, incontrast with the soft, transparent orange yellow of the generalbody color.The color drawing, reproduced in the plate (Plate 54), was madein July, 1913. The normal drawn (Plate 55) was of almost the samesize and, as nearly as one could judge, of the same stage of develop-ment as the albino. The artist's "high light" interfered with theproper representation of the opaque line on the left side of the albino.The presence of the normal amount of yellow pigment and entireabsence of black pigment in the albino indicates in a most interestingway that the black and yellowish-orange pigment in Spelerpes areinherited independently of each other and that they have a differentchemical origin. The writers hoped to rear the albino to sexualmatm'ity and secure offspring from it, but although it had been takingfood regularly it died in August, 1913.An oft-repeated search in the locality where the albino was securedfailed to reveal other albinos.An albino strain of the axolotl has been reared in captivity fornearly half a century. So far as the writers are aware this is theonly unquestioned albino urodele on record. The cave-inhabitingProteus anguineus is sometimes referred to as an albino, but it isdistinctly not an albino, as has been abundantly proven by the pro-duction of pigment in individuals kept for some months in dayhght(Zeller, '88; Vh6, '04, p. 707). Whether the pigmentless TypMo-molge ratlibuni (Stejneger, '96) of the Texas underground waters isan albino, in that it lacks capacity for pigment production underconditions suitable for its development, has not been determined.In his discussion of cases of albinism in amphibians Pavesi ('79)refers to some reputed but doubtful cases of albino urodeles. Theonly case the description of which has been examined by the writersis that of a Salamandra maculosa referred to by Latreille ('02, p. 220),^though this case, too, was called in question by later writers. Thereare numerous records in the literature of so-called partial albinourodeles. Many of these, however, are merely slightly pigmentedindividuals, such as occur frequently in amphibian material rearedunder laboratory conditions and probably have no genetic significance.Britcher ('99) discovered pigmentless eggs of Amhystoma, punc-tatum, but in the course of development the normal amount of pig-ment was produced. Such a case is comparable to what normallyoccurs in the development of Cryptobranchus, Spelerpes, Plethodon,
' This Is not the original description, for as Dr. Stejneger suggests "Latreille (1802) only refers to thePaduan albino Salamandra at third hand. It was apparently first described and figured in 1683 byWurffbain (Salamandrologia, pi. 2, fig. 1). In 1768 Laurenti gave this specimen a binominal appellationSalamandra Candida (Syn. Rept., p. 41) quoting Wurfn:)aln. Latreille took his reference to this specimenfrom Gmelin's Syst. Nat., 17.S9."
NO. 2112. AN ALBINO SALAMANDER?BANl'A AND OORTNER. 379Desmognathus, and other colorless amphibian eggs which producepigmented larvae. During the season of 1914 Prof. T. H. Morgan,of Columbia University, procured pigmentless eggs of the commontoad and kept them through their development until they were nearlyready to transform. Early in their development they acquired thenormal pigment for toad larvae. The larvae were distributed inconvenient ponds at Cold Spring Harbor in the hope of finding moreof the same sort of eggs again.A number of cases of albino anurans have been reported in Europeanspecies. Pavesi ('79) and Boulenger ('97, pp. 28-29) report such^ases and review a number of those reported by others. These albinosmclude larvae of Rana esculenta, larvae and adults of Rana tem-poraria, a Bombinator imchypus, larvae of Biifo viridis, and larvae andadults of Alytes ohstetricans. Of the last-named species Heron-Royer('86) reared adult albinos from albinotic larvae and in turn got off-spring of the same sort from them. Most, at least, of these albinoanurans were unquestionably xanthic specimens, possessing abundantyellow pigment, as our Spelerpes did.BIBLIOGRAPHY.Boulenger, G. A., '97-'98.?Tlie tailless batrachians of Europe. London, Ray Soc,pt. 1, 1897; pt. 2, 1898.Britcher, H. W., '99.?^An occurrence of albino eggs of the spotted salamander,Ambystoma punctatwn L. Trans. Amer. Micr. Soc, vol. 20, pp. 69-74.Heron-Royer, '86.?Sur la reproduction de Falbinisme par voie h^r^ditaire chezI'Alyte accoucheur et sur I'accouplement de ce Batracien. Bull. Soc. Zool.France, 1886, pp. 671-679.Latreille, p. a., '02.?Histoire naturelle des reptiles. Paris, 1802, vol. 2.Pavesi, P., '79.
?
SuU albinismo neiBatraci. Rendic. Istit. Lombard (2), vol. 12, pp.528-534.Stejneger, L., '96.?Description of a new genus, new species, of blind tailed batra-chian from the subterranean waters of Texas. Proc. IT. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 18,pp. 619-621.VrRE, A., '04.?Sur quelques experiences effectuees au laboratoire des Catacombesdu Museum d'histoire naturelle. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. 138, pp.706-708.Zeller, E., '88.?Ueber die Larve des Proteus anguineus. Zool. Anz., vol. 11, Oct. 8,1888, pp. 570-572.

U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM PROCEEDINGS, VOL. 49 PL. 54
r
i^U
Albino Spelerpes bilineatus (Green) x 4.For explanation of plate see page 378.

U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM PROCEEDINGS, VOL. 49 PL. 55
Normal Spelerpes bilineatus (Green) x 4.For explanation of plate see page 378.