PTYCHOZOON HOMALOCEPHALUM. 105 



PTYCHOZOON, Kuhl. 



Fingers and toes dilated, united in their whole length hy a web, with a 

 series of undivided, imbricate, transv erse plates below ; four claws to each 

 foot ; sides of the head, body, tail, and of the limbs with broad, wing-like 

 expansions of the skin. 



Only one species is kno\vii. 



Ptychozoon HOMALOCEPHALUM. The Flying Gecko. 



Lacerta homalocepliala, Creveldt, Schrift. naturf. Freund. Berl. iii. p. 266. tab. 8. 



Gecko liomalocephalus, Tiles. Mem. Acad. Petersb. vii. tab. 10. 



Ptycbozoou homaloceplialura, Kuhl, his, 1822, p. 475. Cantor, Mai. Rept. p. 20. 



Pteropleura horsfieldii, Gray, Philos. May. ii. p. 56. 



Platydactylus liomalocephalus, Dum. ^ Bibr. iii. p. 339. pi. 28. fig. 6, & pi. 29. figs. 1 & 2. 



This Gecko has all the general characters of the preceding genus, but its integuments are 

 dilated into broad folds, forming wing-like expansions along the sides of the whole animal, 

 somewhat resembling those of the Dragons in form and function. One of these flaps is 

 situated below the tympanum, extending from the angle of the mouth to the side of the 

 neck ; the largest runs along the side of the trunk, and is nearly as broad as the body ; each 

 side of the tail is fringed ^vith a series of from fifteen to twenty rounded lobes, which are 

 confluent into a broad, thin flap towards the extremity of the tail ; when the tail has been 

 broken ofi" and is reproduced, the lobes are not separate in the reproduced portion, but 

 always confluent ; each leg has a broad expansion of the skin in front and behind, and the 

 fingers and toes are united by a broad web. The upper parts of the body are finely granular, 

 with four or six series of small tubercles, which are continued on the tail ; the expansions 

 are covered with transverse series of quadrangular scales ; tail without enlarged subcaudals. 

 There are twenty-five pores in a single series running across the prseanal region and slightly 

 angular in front. There are three plates above the rostral, the two lateral of which touch 

 each other ; twelve upper and thirteen lower labials ; the front pair of chin-shields elongate. 



The colours during life have been noted by Cantor. The ground-colour of the head and 

 of the back yellowish-green olive, of the sides reddish brown. Between the eye and snout a 

 double figure, in whitish outline, representmg in front a broad arrow-head, posteriorly united 

 by a narrow stalk to a rectangular transversal band, situated in front of tlie eyes. On the 

 vertex another larger figure, traced in whitish outline, rectangular in front, spreading like a 

 four-rayed star oyer the occiput. A dark-bro-svn band proceeds from behind the eye across 

 the ear to the shoulders, where it joins the anterior black transversal line; the flaps on the 

 cheeks are of a pale flesh-coloui", with dark-blue spots. Iris rich golden brown. From four 



