THE EYES OF THE BLIND VERTEBRATES OF 



NORTH AMERICA. 



VII. THE EYES OF AMPHISB.ENA PUNCTATA (BELL), A BLIND 



LIZARD FROM CUBA.' 



FERNANDUS PAYNE. 



Amphisbcena pitnctata is a blind legless lizard which burrows in 

 the ground. It is common in Cuba to which it is restricted. 

 How deep it burrows, I do not know, but it is often turned out 

 by the plow. The specimens obtained ranged from 103 to 245 

 mm. in length. The head is short, hard and pointed, and the tip 

 of the upper jaw projects slightly beyond the tip of the lower 

 jaw. In shape, arrangement of the dermal plates, and in the 

 color of the ventral surface of the body it closely resembles an 

 earthworm. The dorsal surface is flesh-color with small brown 

 spots. The tail is short and flattened dorsoventrally. In a 

 specimen 245 mm. in length, there were 225 annuli on the dorsal 

 side, 202 on the ventral and 15 on the tail. In this specimen 

 the tail was one thirteenth and the head one thirty-fifth the 

 length of the body. 



Methods.- -The lizards were put alive into formalin. They 

 were afterwards changed to alcohol. For decalcification, the 

 heads were placed in five per cent, nitric acid from twenty to 

 thirty days. A shorter period did not give satisfactory results. 

 Some of the heads were imbedded in paraffin and others in 

 paraffin and celloidin. In using the latter method I imbedded 

 the head in celloidin in the usual manner and hardened in 

 chloroform. From chloroform I transferred the block to soft 

 paraffin for twenty-four hours and thence to hard paraffin for 

 twenty- four hours, after which I imbedded the block in paraffin. 



1 Contribution from the Zoological laboratory of Indiana University, No. 77. The 

 material used in the preparation of this paper was incidentally collected during several 

 expeditions to Cuba. The prime object of the expeditions was to collect life history 

 material of the Cuban blind fishes, Lnci/tiga and Sty : *icola. They were undertaken 

 with a grant of $l,ooo from the Carnegie Institution. 



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