280 BULLETIN 17 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bounded by two exceedingly small external series, and in 37 transverse 

 series; brachial scales conspicuously enlarged, in three or four fairly 

 regular rows, the largest of these rows having about six scales, each 

 of them being wider than long; postbrachials appearing as about a 

 dozen scales considerably larger than the surrounding granules; ante- 

 brachials in four rows of enlarged scales, the widest having four or 

 five large straplike scales across the wrist; brachials and antebrachials 

 well separated by numbers of small scales; femoral pores 20 and 21; 

 anterior face of thigh covered with (5 to 10) rows of enlarged flat 

 scales; four tibial rows, the external row composed of six scales of 

 which the second and third (proximal) are much larger than the others ; 

 no enlarged postanals; seven enlarged plates at the anterior border 

 of the anus, the median and the outermost the smallest, with a pair 

 of enlarged scales in front of these, and a single large scale in front 

 of the pair; 46 scales in the fifteenth verticil of the tail. The hindleg 

 being adpressed, the fourth toe reaches to halfway between the eye 

 and the tympanum. Hands and feet long and slender; the small 

 combs very evident on the toes; fourth toe with 44 lamellae beneath 

 it; fifth toe slightly longer than first. Tail slightly over twice the 

 length of the head and body, not noticeably depressed in its proximal 

 portion, the scales straight, strongly keeled above, faintly on the 

 sides and beneath on the distal portion. 



Dimensions: Head and body, 136 mm.; tail, 290 mm. 



Color (in alcohol) : Ground color of body and limbs dull indigo, 

 with 17 longitudinal series of round white dots running onto the tail, 

 the median rows beginning as anastomosing light lines behind the 

 shoulder, those of the dorsolateral region the largest, the very outer- 

 most reaching to the edges of the ventral plates ; upper surface of legs 

 heavily spotted with white, the arms less so ; nuchal region becoming 

 gradually light and immaculate; head and throat very light; ventral 

 plates slate with their posterior borders whitish; breast and mesopty- 

 chial region black, with a few light dots on the lateral portions, and a 

 very definite boundary anteriorly. 



Variations. — The amount of variation, as I have already indicated 

 (see table 51), is considerable. In the many specimens I have had the 

 privilege of examining closely, the number of longitudinal ventrals 

 varies between 35 and 40; of femoral pores between 16 and 25; of 

 preanal plates between 4 and 9; of tail scales at the fifteenth verticil 

 between 34 and 47; of lamellae under the fourth toe between 39 and 

 52; and finally of dorsal granules between 61 and 73. A compara- 

 tively stable feature of scalation is the number of transverse ventral 

 rows, which in all cases is 12, although very frequently a row of small 

 plates borders the outer series but never reaches significant propor- 

 tions. 



