84 BARBOUR — REPTILES FROM OLD PROVIDENCE Pvol^Vlf ' 



scales of the postfrontal region are curiously broken up and 

 mosaic-like without any evidence of injury. 



If it were a mainland form I should hesitate to describe this 

 species as more than a race of Ameiva ameiva; but I incline 

 always to denominate isolated island forms as full species even 

 though as yet they may not be very sharply differentiated. 



This form can be readily distinguished from Ameiva ameiva 

 praesignis, the local race of Central America, by its totally 

 different pattern and color, and also by the different arrange- 

 ment of the brachial scales. The scales of upper and lower 

 forearm in the race of Ameiva ameiva are larger, and they are 

 continuous, while in this new species the series on the two por- 

 tions of the arm are well separated by granules. 



There is a large male and there are two females in the series; 

 one of the latter was chosen to be the type, since the male had 

 abnormal parietals. 



In 1878 Bocourt (Ann. Sci. Nat. (6) 7, art. 16, p. 1) described 

 w^hat he called Eumeces (Riopa) Fischeri from Puerto Cabello, 

 Venezuela. Later, in 1880 (Miss. Sci. Mex., Livr. 7, 1880, p. 416, 

 pi. 22 F (1881) fig. 1) he definitely changed the name to Riopa 

 Fischerii and showed that his concept of the genus was really 

 not very different from our own. In the Zoological Record for 

 1878 and 1880 both of the references mentioned above are cited. 

 In the later reference, in the Record, the name stands without 

 comment as Riopa fischeri. I cannot find that the species was 

 subsequently mentioned in the literature until 1887, when the 

 third volume of the Catalogue of Lizards by Boulenger appeared, 

 and here we find Riopa fischeri, unceremoniously relegated to the 

 synonymy of Gray's Riopa albopunctata, which, with its fellows, 

 Boulenger merges into his omnium gatherum called Lygosoma. 

 The two descriptions given by Bocourt indicate at once a dis- 

 tinct type of coloration; although, as often happens, the rather 

 few scale characters which he gives agree singularly with the, 

 beyond doubt, wholly unrelated Indian species. So the form 

 has rested in oblivion until now I find in this Old Providence 

 collection four seines which seemed to me at first sight almost 



