Abstract:[Objectives] In order to explore the characteristics of the endocrine cells of the digestive tract of the urodele amphibians, we studied the morphological characteristics, distribution area, and distribution density of argyrophilic cells in the digestive tract amphibians of Hynobius maoershanensis and Pachytriton inexpectatus in the Maoershan Nature Reserve. The present study should accumulate basic information for comparative histology and endocrinology studies of the urodele amphibian digestive tract, and provide a basis for morphological studies of urodele amphibian digestive physiology. [Methods] Each part of the digestive tract was separated by anatomical means, and the experiment was performed using routine paraffin sectioning, Grimelius staining, block observation, photo counting, and other procedures. The original data were converted into LN logarithm, and all the data were in line with normal distribution after examination. Duncan multiple comparison and one-way analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis of argynophila cells in different parts of digestive tract (Microsoft Excel 2016 and SPSS26.0 software), and results of density distribution were expressed by Mean ± standard error (Mean ± SE). [Results] The results showed that there was undulate distribution of argyrophilic cells in digestive tract from esophagus to rectum of these two animals, and the distribution of density peak appeared in esophagus (H. maoershanensis 2.00 ± 0.69; P. inexpectatus 3.42 ± 0.31), but the lowest densities were in ileum (H. maoershanensis 1.45 ± 0.50) and rectum (P. inexpectatus 1.63 ± 0.97), respectively. The density of argyrophilic cells in each part of digestive tract of P. inexpectatus was higher than that in H. maoershanensis, and the difference is significant in esophagus, cardia, duodenum and ileum, but not in stomach, pylorus and rectum. We compared the argyrophilic cells in different parts of the digestive tract of the same species, the distribution peak of density in both H. maoershanensis and P. inexpectatus were appeared in esophagus, with significant differences were found between Hynobius maoershanensis esophagus and the duodenum, ileum and rectum (P < 0.05), and between the P. inexpectatus esophagus and all other parts (P < 0.05) (Table 1). The argyrophilic cells had various shapes, including round, elliptical, pyramidal, fusiform, etc., which could be divided into two types: closed type and open type (Fig. 1). [Conclusion] H. maoershanensis lives in a swampy environment where rich in silt and fallen leaves, and prefers small and easily digestible foods such as frog tadpoles and earthworms, while P. inexpectatus lives in a rocky and coarse sandy mountain stream and prefers to feed on shrimps, crabs and snails, etc. The morphological characteristics and density of distribution of argyrophilic cells in the digestive tracts of these two species have their own characteristics, which may be related to their habitat and feeding habits.