HERPETOLOGY OF ZUNI MOUNTAINS — GEHLBACH 



295 



total of indicated E. m. multivirgatus, 12 denoted E. m. epipleurotus , 

 and 1-11 indicated ascending degrees of intermediacy. The specimen 

 totals plotted against snout-vent length show ontogenetic change of 

 color pattern from E. m. multivirgatus to E. m. epipleurotus with 

 increasing size u-respective of sex (fig. 9). 



12 r 



10 



O 



8-* 



o 

 o o 



o 

 A A A 



A A O 



A A A 



% o o 



A 

 A • 



Ai 



e a I 



I 1 



20 



30 



40 50 



SNOUT- VENT LENGTH mm. 



60 



70 



Figure 9. — Relationship of color-pattern to snout-vent length In Eumeces muUivirgaius 

 from the Zuni region. (The color-pattern of nominate multivirgatus is 0, that of epi- 

 pleurotus is 12.) 



A Males 



# Females |With blue tails 



H HatchlingsJ 



A Males 

 O Females 



Without blue tails 



Suggested bases for retaining E. m. epipleurotus as a southern race 

 of E. multivirgatus are: (1) ontogenetic pattern reduction (not 

 present in nominate subspecies; Maslin, 1957; Mecham, 1957); (2) 

 distinctive juvenile pattern (see Maslin, 1957, fig. IE); (3) posterior 

 border of last supralabial confluent with posterior border of last infra- 

 labial (supralabial projecting caudad at least 15 percent of its length 

 in nominate subspecies; Maslin, 1957, p. 89). The first and second 

 criteria apply to the Zuni skinks; however, for the thu-d, only 38 

 percent of the adults possess the labial feature of E. m. epipleurotus on 

 both sides of the head and 25 percent resemble E. m. multivirgatus, 

 with the remainder being asymmetrical. While this third criterion 

 remains to be tested in other New Mexico populations, some influence 

 from the northern race is expected if physiographic and ecologic 



