614 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



c. Digits fringed laterally. 



Femoral pores f^capteira Wiegmaun. 



No lemoral jiores Aporosanra Bonlenger. 



2. Lower eyelid with a very large transparent disk covering nearly entirely 

 tlie eye; digits strongly keeled inferiorly. 



Lower eyelid movable Cahrila Gray. 



Lower eyelid united with the u]iper Uphiops Meuestries. 



IL No frontoparietals; tail much depressed denticulated laterally.. .Holaspis Gray. 



GERRHOSAURID^. 



Scincidm, Angiiidce Gray, part, Am. Phil. (2), X, 1825, p. 201. 

 Ophisauroidea Fitzixger, part, Neuo Classif. Kept. 1826, p. 20. 

 Autarch oglossw Wagler, part, Syst. Amph., 1830, p. 196. 

 rtjjchopleuri Wiegmaxn, part, Herpt. Mex., 1834, p. 11. 



ClialcAdiens ptyclwpl cures Dumeril and Bibron, part, Exp. Gen., V, 1839, p. 336. 

 Zonnridxr Gray, part, Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 1845, pp.5, 45. 

 Zonuridw Cope, part, Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., XIX, 1871, p. 237. 

 Gerrhosaurida! Boulenger, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), XIV, 1884, p. 120; Cat. 

 Liz. Brit. Mus., Ill, 1887, p. 119. 



Boulenger describes this family as follows : 



Tongue moderately elongate, bifid posteriorly, free and very feebly nicked ante- 

 riorly, covered with inbricate scales like papilhe or oblique plic:e converging 

 anteriorly towards the median line. Dentition pleurodont; teeth closely set, with 

 long cylindrical shafts, hollow at the base, with conical or bicuspid crowns. Ptery- 

 goid teeth often present. Skull in every respect similar to that of the Lacertidre, 

 with dermal ossification roofing over the supratemporal fossje. Limbs well developed 

 or rudimentary. Clavicle dilated and loof-shaped proximally; interclavicle cruci- 

 form. Tail Jong and fragile. Head with symmetrical shields. Body with squarish 

 or rhomboidal imbricate scales, which often form regular longitudinal and trans- 

 verse series; it is besides protected by osteodermal plates, underlying the scales, 

 which show a system of longitudinal tubules intersecting a transverse one, as in the 

 Scincidw; this structure iisually more distinct on the ventral plates than on the 

 thicker and rougher dorsal ones. A lateral fold with granular scales, similar to that 

 of Gerrhonotus, is present in all genera except Tracheloptyclius, which in its scaling 

 more resembles the Seines. 



Femoral pores constantly present. Eyelids well developed. Tym- 

 panum distinct. 



In tlie liemipenis in Gerrhosaurus nigroUneatus, there are on the distal 

 third, three welts opposite the sulcus, the median larger, all finely 

 cross folded. Between one of these and the sulcus is a tract of coarse 

 papilla"; between the other and the sulcus the surface is smooth. 



This family is exactly intermediate between the Lacertidce (single 

 premaxillary, femoral pores) and the Scincidcv (presence and structure 

 of the dermal bony idates). It is strictly African, its headquarters 

 being South Africa and Madagascar, and extending northward to the 

 southern limit of Sahara. 



SYNOPSIS OP THE GENERA. 



I. Nostril pierced between two nasals and the first labial; ventral plates forming 

 straight transverse series. 

 Tongue nearly entirely covered with inbricate scale-like papilhi?; i>refrontals 

 and frontoparietals present; lower eyelid scaly Gerrhosaurus Wiegmanu. 



