OCR Text |
Show 1906.] IN MEXICAN LIZARDS. 343 6 specimens collected by Forrer are related to the Topic and Jalisco Cnemidophorus. They possess 6 white or whitish stripes, with faint field-spots which increase in number with age. There is no trace of a fourth pair of stripes, and no breaking-up of the stripes into spots is indicated, not even in the largest specimens. The throat is sometimes speckled with dark pigment; chest and abdomen are chequered blue-black and white. The tail is reddish beneath. Zapotlan in Jalisco, between Guadalajara and Colima. (Text-fig. 77 A.)-Throat across the middle with a dull bluish tinge; lower throat whitish, and mottled with grey. Collar bluish, except the large row of scales which is whifce. Upper chest blue with white edges to the scales. Rest of body black, chequered with white. Tail beneath very dark, all the whitish scales having much blue-black pigment. Under surface of arms blue-black with whitish patches.-Upper parts :-First specimen : 6 complete dull stripes ; mid-field dark grey, bordered on each side by a row of black spots. Fields I. and II. black, with irregular rows of large, round, grey spots. None of the stripes is dissolved into spots, but whiter spots are visible in the second stripe. The second specimen is beautiful. There are no traces of stripes left. Neck and shoulders are dusky. The whole back shows about 10 rows of large round yellowish-white spots upon a dark ground. Smaller yellow spots on the rump, thighs, legs, and upon the first two inches of the tail. On the sides of the chest the black colour forms cross-bars because the rows of large pale spots below the first stripe are transversely confluent. This specimen conforms exactly with Cope's typical G. communis, whilst the first, also a male, scarcely shows the characteristic development of spots within the stripes. Unfortunately I did not catch a single specimen at or near Zapotlan, but I saw several in the striped and in the spotted condition. Tuxpan (text-fig. 79 A ) , south of Zapotlan.-Fourth supraocular very small. Throat tinged with bluish across the middle ; collar bluish white. Rest of under parts, including arms and thighs, dark blue with some white specks on the flanks. Tail blue all round. The ground-colour of the upper parts olive-brown, with 6 dull stripes, each of which is broken up into whitish beads. The first and second fields with conspicuous black cross-patches. Mid-field olive-brown, with a few small black specks along the inside of the third pair of stripes. Numerous small, whitish spots on rump, thighs, and tail, and a few such spots in the second field. This specimen, having lost most of the small white spots on the back, in conformity with the prevalence of olive-brown ground-colour, is in the incipient tiger-stage, connecting in this respect the Colima specimen (C. communis copei) with the 88 m m. specimen from Patzcuaro (text-fig. 77 B). Puebla. Nine specimens collected by Dr. Meek near the town of Puebla on the railway embankments.-Throat and collar white |