200 LaceHid;e. 



Pseudophiops, Jerdoii, Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1870, p. 71. 

 Gymnoj^s (non Cuv.), Blanf. Jouru. As. Soc. Beug. xxxix, 1870, 

 p. 351. 



Chondropldops, Blauf. op. cit. xlii, 1873, p. 144. 



Head-shields normal. Nostril pierced l^etween two, 

 three or four nasals, well separated from the first upper 

 labial. Lower eyelid fused with the iipper, with a very 

 large transparent disc. Collar feebly defined or absent 

 in the middle. Dorsal scales rhombic, imbricate, and 

 strongly keeled, usually large. Ventral plates imbricate, 

 smooth. Digits more or less compressed, with sharply 

 keeled lamella? inferiorly. Femoral pores. Tail long, 

 cylindrical. 



South-Eastern P]urope, South-Western Asia and India, 

 North Africa. 



The only cliaracter distiugiiisliing this geuus from the preceding is 

 the fusion of the lower eyelid with the upper — a state of things which 

 conveys the apjJearauce of au absence of the eyelids, as believed by all 

 earlier authors.* But, as I explained in 1887, what was supposed to 

 be the cornea of the eye of Ophiops is the transparent disc of the 

 lower lid, which is neither more nor less developed than in Cabrita. 

 Although united with the upper, the lower eyelid is, however, not 

 absolutely immovable. On touching the transparent disc in 0. 

 occidentalis, which I liad alive, I observed this to be at once lowered, 

 the upper half of the eye being then covered by the granular portion 

 of the lid. 



In all the species the parietal foramen is present and pterygoid teeth 

 are absent. 



Cahrifa is clearly the connecting link between lizards with normal 

 eyelids and Ophiops, and tlie Indian forms of both these genera are 

 closely allied to one another, as is particularly striking when we 

 compare O. jerdonii and 0. heddomii with Cabrita jerdonii, or 0. micro- 

 lepis with C. hschenaultii. Although these species are certainly derived 

 from the same original stock, the existing forms must be left out of 

 consideration as regards direct descent, for the lack of the occipital in 

 Cabrita jerdonii and the striatiou of the upper head-shields in C. 



* " Palpebra inferior nulla, .^superioris tantunimodo rudimenta," Menetries, — 

 " Oculi palpebris destituti, capsula ociilari iustructi," Wiegmann. — " Pas de 

 paupieres," Dumt-ril and Bibron. — " E yelid.s none," Giinther. 



