244 SPHAERODACT\XUS. 



Diagnosis: — Small, dark brown, with somewhat enlarged, elongate, keeled, 

 imbricate dorsal scales about fourteen or fifteen equalling distance of tip of snout 

 from centre of eye; no middorsal zone of small scales, upper head scales very 

 minute, scales on snout slightly more elongate but scarcely wider than those of 

 vertex; supranasals widely separated by about five small scales. Ventrals 

 keeled. 



Description: — M. C. Z. 13,594. Jamaica: Constant Springs, near Kingston, 

 1909. Thomas Barbour. 



Snout very short, rather rounded ; eye distinctly nearer tip of snout than ear; 

 rostral large with long median groove; nostril between rostral, a small supra- 

 nasal and two or three small scales which may or may not occlude the nostril 

 from the first supralabial ; supranasals of either side separated by a considerable 

 number of very small granules which fill a shallow reentrant area in the posterior 

 part of the rostral; suture between third and fourth supralabial below the centre 

 of the eye; superciliary spine present; top and sides of head covered with ex- 

 cessively fine granules not or scarcely enlarged on snout; dorsals very small, 

 keeled, slightly imbricate, about fourteen equalling the distance of tip of snout 

 from centre of eye ; mental large followed by many small, scarcely enlarged post- 

 mentals; throat-scales rovmd juxtaposed. Ventrals slightly larger than dorsals, 

 imbricate, feebly but distinctly keeled; limbs also with very small overlapping 

 keeled scales; scales of tail hkewise all excessively small, keeled and not arranged 

 in whorls; greatly enlarged plates below. 



Colour:- — Rich mahogany-brown; a usually very distinct dark middorsal 

 zone composed of confluent rhombs, those on tail often separate; often a light 

 line along upper sides of the upper proximal half of tail. 



Dimensions: — Tip of snout to vent 22 mm. 



Vent to tip of tail 20 mm. 



Greatest width of head 3.25 mm. 



Tip of snout to ear 5 mm. 



Fore leg 5 . 75 mm. 



Hind leg 8 mm. 



Remarks: — A beautiful and always very tiny little lizard; widespread in 

 Jamaica and everywhere rare. It is invariably found m wooded country and in 

 the heavy forests of the Blue Moimtains it occurs right to the summit of the high 

 wooded peaks. It was frequently caught when tearing up rotten logs in search- 

 ing for Peripatus, although more of the latter than of the sphaerodactyls were 



