| OCR Text |
Show 1895.] BATRACHIANS FROM ADEN. 643 placed at my disposal, for the purpose of collecting, by the Sultan of Lahej, but this solitary specimen was the beginning and ending of his services. It was obtained in the neighbourhood of the babool trees mentioned in connection with Pristurus flavipunctatus. The second was received from a camel-driver who said he had killed it, at the door of his house, in Al Hautah, Lahej; and the third was seen among some thick bushes at Haithalhim." In this species, but more so in Varanus niloticus, two slight eminences are occasionally present, in both sexes, immediately before the cloacal opening, occupying the position of the prseanal pores of other lizards. The true nature of these structures in V. griseus is best seen by studying Varanus niloticus. The pores of the body-scales of that species are very minute openings requiring the aid of a hand-lens to render them visible, but in front of the cloacal opening they decidedly increase in size, and one or more of them, always in the same spot, frequently becomes enlarged and functionally active in a way perfectly distinct from any of its fellows, as from it alone exudes a yellowish-red secretion. In front of the anus a distinct swollen eminence occurs on either side of the mesial line and in the centre of this swelling is placed the enlarged pore. W h e n the red crust of the dry secretion is removed a distinct pit remains, and in one specimen there was clear evidence of this pit being made up from secondary cup-shaped depressions, their central walls of opposition having been absorbed, so that the pit had a quadrilobate appearance. The presence of a pair of eminences in this region suggests the probability that they are glandular in nature, and that, during their functional activity, one or more scale-pores become enlarged and perform the function of excretory orifices. I direct attention to these structures in the Varanidce, as they suggest that undue importance should not be attached to the absence or presence of prseanal pores in certain Lacertilian genera. As a further illustration of this I may mention that in the genus Stenodactylus two prseanal pores, like those of Ceramodactylus, are absent or present, irrespective of sex, in the species generally known as S. guttatus, Cuv., but, as every herpetologist is aware, this genus has hitherto been regarded as devoid of these structures. 8. LATASTIA NEUMANNI (Matschie). (Plate XXXVII. fig, 1.) Philochortus neumanni, Matschie, SB. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berlin, 1893, p. 30. 1 2 . Lahej. 1 cf« Lahej. These two specimens so perfectly agree with Herr Matschie's description of the species, that there can be no question of their correct identification. The only example obtained by Herr Oscar Neumann measured 72 millim. from the snout to the vent; whereas 41* |
