TEAPELUS MEGALONYX. 159 



TRAPELUS. 



Trapelus, {Cuv.) Gray, Lizards, p. 258, 



Tympanum naked. Body depressed, covered with irregular scales unequal 

 in size ; tail rounded, tapering, covered with imbricate keeled scales, not 

 arranged in rings ; head and neck without spines. Throat with a cross fold ; 

 nuchal crest none, or rudimentary; a series of anal pores in the male. 



This is a North- African genus, extending into Western Asia ; the following species appears 

 to reach farthest westwards into British India. 



TkAPELUS MEGALONYX. (Plate XIV. fig. C.) 



Head thick, short, triangular, covered above with numerous small convex shields ; canthus 

 rostralis none ; superciliary edge prominent, shielded with longish, narrow plates ; nostril 

 anteriorly on the snout ; the upper lip is surrounded by thirty-nine small square labials, the 

 rostral scarcely differing from them in size or shape. Ear small, deeply sunk ; its upper 

 margin slightly denticulated ; throat covered with very small smooth scales ; a transverse fold 

 across the whole throat. No trace of a crest on the neck. Body above covered with rather 

 small, rhombic, keeled scales, irregularly arranged, with numerous larger ones scattered over 

 the whole of the back and of the sides ; ventral scales small, very indistinctly keeled, in 

 about twenty-two oblique series between the fore legs. No anal pores in the female. All 

 the scales on the tail are rhombic, keeled, imbricate, subequal in size. Legs rather slender : 

 the fore leg reaches beyond the hip-joint, if laid backwards ; the fingers are strong, provided 

 below with a triple series of spines, and armed with very strong and long claws, each of 

 which is at least as long as the thumb without claw. The hind leg extends to the eye, if 

 laid forwards ; toes with the claws of moderate strength, one-third as long as those of the 

 fore leg ; the fourth toe is one-fourth longer than the third. 



Greyish, marbled with brown ; a series of six ocellated white spots, edged with blackish, 

 along the vertebral line. 



The specimen on which I have founded this species is 5^ inches long, the tail measuring 

 3 inches. It formed part of Mr. Grifiith's collections which were sent to the Museum of 

 the East India Company, and which were afterwards transferred to the British Museum. 

 The collections made by Griffith being from Afghanistan and from Khasya, it is probable 

 that this species, belonging to a western genus, was obtained in the former country. 

 Moreover, as the Afghan collection was not in so good a state of preservation as the 

 Khasyan, and as this specimen of Trapelus is in much the same state of preservation as the 

 other specimens of Griffith's Afghan collection, it is reasonable to conclude that it came from 

 Afghanistan, and not from Khasya. 



