46 BULLETIN 199, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Range. — Huixtla, Chiapas (only definite Mexican record), south- 

 ward in Central America to northwestern South America; Jamaica 

 (probably introduced); Florida (probably introduced). 



Genus PHYLLODACTYLUS Gray 



Phyllodactylus Gray, Spicilegia zoologica, 1830, p. 3. 



Discodactylus Fitzinger, Systema reptilium, 1843, p. 95 (type, Phyllodactylus 



pulcher Gray). 



Genotype. — Phyllodactylus pulcher Gray. 



Range. — California to and including most of South America; 

 Galapagos Islands, southern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, 

 et cetera. 



Species. — ^About 48 species are known; 9 are known from Mexico.^* 



KEY TO MEXICAN SPECIES OF PHYLLODACTYLUS 



1. Dorsal squamation consisting of minute rounded scales without admixture of 



larger tubercles; no enlarged tubercles on tail; small, length 52 mm. 



unctus (p. 47) 



Dorsal squamation with an admixture of larger tubercles; larger tubercles 



present or absent on tail 2 



2. Tail lacking any trace of enlarged tubercles on dorsal surface 3 



Tail with smaller or larger tubercles intermixed with dorsal lepidosis 4 



3. Scales on head between middle of orbits 15-17 ^®; on dorsal and lateral surface 



14 to 16 rows of large, very distinct trihedral tubercles; smaller, 44 + mm. 



bordai (p. 47) 



Scales between orbits 19-24; dorsal tubercles low, small, rather indistinct, 



arranged in 8 to 12 rows; larger, 90 mm delcampi (p. 47) 



4. Two rows of tubercles on dorsal surface of tail (greatly reduced or absent in 



homolepidurus) 5 



More than two rows of enlarged tubercles, at least on basal third of tail 6 



5. Scales between middle of orbits 22-26; tubercles on back and tail large, well 



defined muralis (p. 47) 



Scales between middle of orbits 19-24; tubercles on back much smaller than in 

 muralis, the caudal tubercles reduced so that they can be discerned only 

 with difficulty; 67 mm homolepidurus" (p. 48) 



»» Phyllodactylus pulcher Gray, Spicilegia Zoologica, from "Tropical America," may be found to occur in 

 Mexico. It is distinct from all otliers listed here by having 20 to 22 longitudinal series of dorsal tubercles 

 (rather than 14 to 16), and larger ventral scales, in 22 longitudinal and 53 transverse series (rather than 25 to 

 30 and 65, respectively). 



We likewise are unable to place Phyllodactylus mentalis Werner (Jahrb. Hamb. Wiss. Anstalten, vol. 27, 

 No. 2, 1910, p. 6; Zool. Mus. Hamburg; L. von Poppinghausen coll.; Central America or Mexico). Mosauer 

 (Copeia, 1936, p. 144) includes a few notes on the type. 



'• Not counting scales on vestigial eyelids. 



" Bogert and Oliver (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 83, 1945) note that at least nine species of Phyllo- 

 dactylus have been described from western Mexico in recent years and that certain of these are allopatric and 

 their characters strongly suggest that a more accurate "indication of the biological conditions that exist" may be 

 obtained by considering them as subspecies or races of the same species. They proceed to place homolepi- 

 durus as a subspecies under tuberculosus. Since the latter name cannot be fixed at the present time, we do 

 not follow this proposal. Unfortunately, these authors have not examined most of the described forms and 

 have overlooked the fact that at least four of the species may occur in the same general locality. They state 

 that "the lizards of this genus exhibit considerable variation." These forms are probably no more variable 

 than other lizards. For many years most North American species of Phyllodactylus were classified in muse- 

 ums as "tuberculostis," and examination of such material might create the erroneous idea that "tuberculosus" 

 was an extremely variable species. 



