682 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



In alcohol this curious auimal is of a uniform white. Its color in 

 life and its habits are unknown. It seems to be not uncommon at Cape 

 St. Lucas, Lower California. 



AMPHISB^ENID^. 



Am2}hisba'nid(e Gray, Ann. Phil. (2), X, 1825, p. 203. 



AmphiubcBHoiclce Fitzinger, Neue Classif. Rept., 1826, p. 24. 



Angues Wagler, part, Syst. Amph., 1830, p. 196. 



Amphisbwna Wiegmann, Herpt. Mex., 1834, p. 20. 



Chalcidiens glyptodennes Dumeril and Bibron, Erp. G6n., Y, 1839, p. 464. 



Amphiahamida', Lepidosternidce, Chirotidce Gray, Cat. Tort., Amphieb., Brit. Mus., 



1844, pp. 69, 73, 74. 

 Amphishwnidw Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864; Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. 



Sci., XIX, 1871, p. 237.— Boulexger, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), XIV, 1884, 



p. 120; Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 2d ed., II, 1885, p. 430. 



Dr. Boulenger gives the following description of this family : 



Tongue moderately elongate, arrowheaded, covered with imbricate, scale-like 

 papillae, ending in two long, narrow, smooth points. Teeth large, few, anchylosed 

 to the inner edge of the jaws ; prsemaxillary teeth usually in odd n amber ; no ptery- 

 goid teeth. Skull thick, strongly ossitied, without interorbital septum, or colu- 

 mella cranii, or jjostorbital, or supratemporal arches; premaxillary single; nasals 

 two ; frontals two ; parietal single, very large ; an orbitosphenoid bone ; quadratum 

 very oblique or nearly horizontal, owing to the shortness of the postcoronoid part 

 of the mandible; occipital condyle frequently divided. Vertebne very numerous, 

 depressed, all except the foremost without spinous processes. Pectoral arch imper- 

 fectly developed in Chirotes, reduced to minute rudiments in the other (limbless) 

 forms; pelvic arch reduced to minute rudiments. Worm-like, adapted to subter- 

 ranean life; eyes concealed under the skin; mouth small, frequently inferior; no 

 ear. Head covered with symmetrical plates ; skin divided into soft, squarish -seg- 

 ments, forming regular annuli. Tail short. 



The shape of the skull varies considerably, according to the genera; in this re- 

 spect Blanus appears to be least specialized, although the occipital condyle is divided, 

 while it remains single (kidney shaped when seen posteriorly) in the otherwise more 

 specialized Acrodonta. The mandible especially undergoes the greatest modifica- 

 tions, as may be seen from Gervais and Peters's accounts of Blanus, Amphisiauia, 

 Lepidosternmn, and Monopeltis. The angular bone is chiefly developed on the inter- 

 nal side of the ramus, and the splenial is very small. The coronoid is large and 

 subtriangular, and is overlapped from behind by the surangular on the external face 

 of the ramus. Meckel's groove is closed. The columella auris is robust. The paroc- 

 cipital is present as a scale just above the quadrate. 



All the members of this family are burrowers, and many live in ants' nests. 

 They bore narrow galleries in the earth, in which they are able to progress back- 

 ward as well as forward. On the ground they progress on a straight line, by slight 

 vertical undulations, not by lateral movements, as in other limbless reptiles; the 

 tail of many species seems to be more or less prehensile. The food of these lizards 

 consists of small insects and worms. Little has been published on their habits, and 

 all that is known of their mode of parturition is that Anops kimjii is oviparous, and 

 deposits its ova in ants' nests. 



As many as sixty-one species are enumerated by Boulenger in the 

 Catalogue of the British Museum; thirty-eight are American, out of 

 which only one, Bliinenra floHdana, occurs north of the Tropic of 

 Cancer, and four {Amphisbwna and Diphalus) in the West Indies. The 



