OCR Text |
Show 232 MR. A. W. E. o'SHAUGHNESSY ON [Feb. double row of very large broad plates, increasing in size posteriorly, leading to the chest. Sides of the neck and of the body anteriorly granular. Back covered entirely with elongate narrow, strongly keeled scales, sharply pointed posteriorly, in about eighteen longitudinal rows in the middle of the body, and giving place to much smaller scales on the sides. Ventral shields large and smooth, the middle ones square, the lateral ones rounded, in six longitudinal series, with an additional small external series on each side. Three posterior very long prseanal shields, the middle one very narrow and straight, the two outer ones broader and rounded. Lower caudal plates smooth, the upper ones, continued from the back, keeled. Limbs with large scutes on the anterior surfaces, as in other Lizards of this group. Fourth toe on the anterior limb a little longer than the third. The scales beneath the toes with tooth-like projections; so that all the toes on both fore and hind feet are strongly pectinate. Femoral pores twelve. Dark greenish above (in spirits). The sides black, forming a broad and well-defined stripe from the sides of the head to the tail, bounded inferiorly by a narrow pure white stripe from the rostral to the hind limb. A very remarkable pure white patch covers a part of the fore limb, including the first, second, and third toes, and reaching up the wrist and along the anterior scutes of the inner surface of the arms to the elbow. Another isolated white patch is seen on the fore part of the upper arm, near the body. The rest of the front or upper surfaces of the fore limb are dark brown, black in the vicinity of the white patches, and including the two remaining toes. The hind limbs are paler brown, with faint coloured ocelli. Lower surface of the entire Lizard yellowish white, becoming bluish on the belly. The upper surface of the trunk is variegated with dark spots and a distinct zigzag pattern of light and dark brown extends the whole length of the tail. The white lateral vitta on the head is rendered more conspicuous by a short inferior streak of black along the labials, and by the lower symphysial plate being black against the white of the adjacent plates. millim. Total length 137 Distance from tip of snout to ear-opening.. 16 » » eye 6 „ „ „ fore limb .. 29 >, >> „ vent 70 Length of fore limb 25 ,, fourth front toe 6 „ hind limb 36 fourth hind toe 10 third hind toe 8 Characters which render this species at once conspicuous are the peculiar white markings and the toothed undersurface of the toes, The latter feature seems sufficient at once to distinguish the present |