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Show 1 9 0 4 . ] LACERTA DEPRESSA OF CAMERANO. 3 3 3 six in number*, though very detailed, do not cover by any means the variations which the specimens show. I quite agree with Boettgerf in regarding L. depressa and its varieties as not specifically separable from the L. muralis of S.W. Asia, which embraces the forms named L.chalybdea, L.saxicola, L.pon'tschinskiir and L. defilippii. With these forms I propose to deal elsewhere, and my object on the present occasion is merely to give accurate descriptions of the individual specimens which are the types of L. depressa. One of them is in the British Museum, one has passed into the collection of Dr. de Bedriaga and is not available to me at present, whilst the four others are preserved in the Turin Museum. I deal with the five specimens in order of size. 1. Male.-Snout obtusely pointed; the greatest depth of the head equals the distance between the eye and the tympanum. Rostral not entering the nostril, forming a narrow suture with the frontonasal J ; frontal as long as its distance from the end of the snout; a complete series of granules between the two principal supraoculars and the supraciliaries; fourth supraocular divided into two ; parietals once and a half as long as broad, not in contact with the upper supraocular § ; the upper border of the parietal very slightly concave in front for the accommodation of a rather large upper temporal shield ; occipital half as long, but a little broader than the interparietal; temporal scales small and granular; tympanic and masseteric shields well developed, the latter oval, oblique, and separated from the upper temporal by two series of granules; four upper labials anterior to the subocular, the lower border of which is nearly as long as the upper. Collar even-edged, composed of 11 plates; 31 scales on a line between the symphysis of the chin-shields and the median plate of the collar. Body much depressed. Dorsal scales roundish-hexagonal, flat, faintly keeled on posterior part of back ; 60 scales across the middle of the body, 3 or 4 transverse series corresponding to a ventral plate, 44 to the length of the head. Yentral plates in 6 longitudinal and 26 transverse series. Anal plate preceded by a nearly equally large shield, the two plates bordered by a semicircle of 9 small plates. Hind limb reaching the collar. Scales on upper surface of tibia rhomboidal, keeled, and a little larger than the dorsals, 8 transverse series of the former corresponding to 10 of the latter. Femoral pores 22-21. 27 lamellar scales under the fourth toe. Upper and lateral scales at the base of the tail strongly keeled, those on the sides raised behind, subtrigonal, squarely truncate ; the whorls alternately longer and shorter, but not very markedly * Bedriaga says seven, but this is probably through a lapsus calami. f Ber. Senck. Ges. 1892, p. 141. X As occurs sometimes in both the f typica and the var. bedriagcr. § Mehely, Ann. Mus. Hung. ii. 1904, p. 367, has strangely overrated the systematic importance of this character, which is inconstant not only in Asiatic examples but also in the European (numerous exceptions from Franee, Spain and Portugal, Italy, Islands of Mediterranean) and North African. |
