80 BULLETIN 10 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



this form. These errors have been amplified by certain later writers 

 who have secured their information from the earlier publications. 

 The most important point in the history of sexlineatus follow in 

 chronological order. 



The G-lined race runner was described by Linnaeus in 1766 as a 

 species of Lacerta and between that date and 1839 it was referred 

 to a number of genera. In 183G Holbrook wrote of his " Ameiva 

 sex-lineata " as follows : " This animal was certainly first described 

 by Linnaeus * * * from a specimen sent him by Dr. Garden of 

 Charleston, who furnished him with numerous rare specimens of 

 jjlants and animals from Carolina. * * * It is impossible to 

 understand what led him to consider this animal as the Lion Lizard 

 of Catesby (vol. 2, pi. 68), with which it neither agrees in colour, 

 habits, nor geographical distribution. * * * It is remarkable 

 that most naturalists since Linnaeus have copied this error, and 

 have given the same reference." 



In 1839 Dumeril and Bibron placed sexlineatus in the genus 

 Gnemido'phoTVjS and in 1843, Fitzinger (p. 20) designated this lizard 

 as the type species of his genus Asjy'idoscelis^ which however, has 

 never been recognized. 



In their list of the specimens in the Paris Museum, Dumeril and 

 Dumeril (1851, p. 116) recorded G. sexlineatus from the folloAving 

 localities : Savannah, Ga. ; Vera Cruz, Mexico ; Habana, Cuba ; 

 Charleston, S. C. ; New Orleans, La. ; and Martinique in the West 

 Indies. The reports from the United States may have been correct, 

 but the one from Vera Cruz may have been based on either gularis, 

 deppii, or guttatus; the one from Habana, Cuba, was probably based 

 on a specimen of Airveiva auheri,' and, likewise, the one from 

 " Martinique " must have been based on an Ameiva. Westphal- 

 Castelnau (1870) apparently copied the errors of Dumeril and 

 Dumeril, and in the same fashion Vilanova and Piera (1874) con- 

 sidered this species as " inhabiting not only parts of the United 

 States, but of Mexico and Martinique as well." 



In 1878 Yarrow and Henshaw (p. 1640) reported sexlineatus from 

 southern California on the basis of a series of specimens (U.S.N.M. 

 No. 8630), and from Los Angeles, Calif., on the basis of one speci- 

 men (U.S.N.M. No. 8631). Since both of these numbers were listed 

 under tessellatus by Cope (1900), it is obvious that these reports were 

 due to misidentifications. In 1866 Cope (p. 283) reported a series of 

 specimens from near the city of Chihuahua, Mexico, with "six 

 longitudinal stripes and unspotted interspaces " as C. sexlineatus 

 sexlineatus, but an examination shows that they were really inter- 

 grades between gularis and perplexus, which are here recognized as 

 subspecies of sexlineatus. Because of their close resemblance to each 



