Lacertidse. 5- 



Distribution. 



Europe and Asia to the northernmost limit of Eeptilian life, east- 

 ward to Saghalieu and Japan, southward to Borneo, Java, Sumatra 

 and Ceylon ; Africa, exclusive of Madagascar and the Seychelles. 



Eui'ope, Asia, Africa : Lacerta, Acanthodactylus, Ophiops, Eremias. 



Europe, Africa : Ahjiroides, Psammodromus. 



Asia, Africa: Philochortus, Latastia, Scaptira. 



Asia : Apeltonotus, Tachydromus, Platyplacopris, Cahrita, Macma- 

 honia. 



Africa : Nucras, Gastropholis, Bedriagaia, Poromera, Tropidosauray 

 Ichnotropis, Aporosaui-a, Holaspis. 



Palaearctic Region : Lacerta, Alijiroides, Latastia, Acanthodactylus ^ 

 Apeltonotus, Tachydromus, Platyplacopus, Psammodromus, Ophiops, 

 Eremias, Scaptira, Macmahonia. 



Oriental or Indo-Malay Region * : Tachydromus, Cahrita, Ophiops. 



Ethiopian Region : Nucras, Lacerta, Algiroides, Philochortus, Latas- 

 tia, Acanthodactylus, Gastropholis, Bedriagaia, Poromera, Tropidosatira, 

 Ichnotropis, Eremias, Scaptira, Aporosaura, Holaspis. 



Including, of course, the genus Nucras, now restricted to Tropical 

 and South Africa, but which there is reason to believe was represented 

 in Europe in the Oligocene period, all the Ethiopian genera may be 

 looked upon as derived from Palaearctic forms ; although equally 

 numerous, and even more diversified, Aporosaura and Holaspis being 

 the most aberrant of the family, there is every reason to regard them 

 as modifications of more northern types. As to the very poor Indo- 

 Malay Lacertid fauna, all except Cahrita are obviously mere streamers 

 from the Palaearctic fauna, and, from theoretical considerations, we 

 may say the same of Cahrita. If we consider the present composition 

 of the Palaearctic fauna, the conclusion is reached that the centre from 

 which the members of the family have radiated from very early 

 times corresponds roughly to what is now S.E. Europe, Asia Minor, 

 and Transcaucasia, where several primitive forms have maintained 

 themselves, t 



* As defiuecl by Blaufovcl, Phil. Trans, cxliv, 1901, p. 432, who regarded the 

 Punjab and Sind, with Western Rajputana and Baluchistan, as the south- 

 eastern extremity of the Mediterranean subregion of the Palaearctic region, 

 extending westward, through Persia and Arabia, to the Sahara. 



fin accordance with the theory of " oriental migration " supported by 

 A. Engler, Vers. Entw. Pflanzenw. i (1879), and by E. Scharff, History of the 

 European Fauna, p. 245 (1899). 



