OCR Text |
Show 660 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON TWO NEW LIZARDS. [Nov. 17, (Bussora of the maps), the port of Mesopotamia on tbe Shat el Arab, the estuary formed by the united Tigris and Euphrates. All the country away from the bank of the river is more or less desert; and Uromastix microlepis probably dwells in the waste dry region. U. microlepis is closely allied to the African U. spinipes and U. acanthinura; it is distinguished from the former by the absence of enlarged scales on the sides, and by the lateral folds on the neck bearing tubercles, and from the latter by its much smaller scales. CENTROTRACHELUS* LORICATUS, sp. nov. C isabellinus, fusco maculatus, tuberculis majoribus dorsalibus in tineas transversus interruptas dispositis, affinis C. asmussi, a quo colore pallidiore isabellino, nee olivaceo, dorso maculato, squamarum majorum dorsalium seriebus magis distantibus in-terruptisque, unguibus forlioribus, squamis supradigitalibus minoribus, et carinis squamarum infra pedes posteriores in lineas transversas haud obliquas dispositis, tantum differt. Statura adulti maxima esse dicitur. Hab. haud procul a Bushire, urbe ad litus sinus Persici. Description.-General form very massive ; head short, triangular ; body very broad, depressed; tail much shorter than the body, armed above and on the sides with large spinose tubercles arranged in rings, about twenty-four in number, the rings extending round the tail, but composed below of smaller keeled scales, diminishing in size towards the base of the tail. Limbs strong, the fore leg reaching the end of the snout when laid forward, and extending about halfway to the thigh when laid back; the hind legs along the side do not nearly touch the axil. Teeth about nineteen on each side of the upper jaw, and eighteen on each side of the lower, besides a cutting tooth-like process on each side in front of the latter, and a similar, but broader, single cutting edge in front of the upper jaw. These have not the lateral portions tooth-like, as in Uromustix spinipes, U. hardwicki, &c, but, as in Centrotrachelus asmussi, appear to be entirely formed of a process of the bone. Tongue cleft at the end. Total length of the specimen (immature) 16 inches, tail from anus 7, head 1*6, fore limb 3*25, third toe of fore limb with claw, measured from the division between the third and fourth toes, 0-6, hind limb 4-5, third toe 0*7. The femoral pores are too ill developed for their number to be determined ; they appear to be closer together and more numerous than in C. asmussi. Scales of the head above angulately convex, largest above the muzzle, smallest on the superciliary regions. Scales of chin and throat small. A few scattered conical tubercles on the sides of the neck. Scales of the back rather irregularly rhomboidal, subimbri-cate ; the majority small, but crossed by transverse rows of tubercular, submucronate, enlarged scales. These rows are irregular and * A figure of C. asmussi, Strauch, will be given in my forthcoming account of the zoology of Persia. The species was described by Strauch in 1863 (Bull. Imp. Acad. Sci. St.-Pet. vi. p. 479), from a specimen obtained by Count Key-serling north-west of Sistan. |