Laceiia. 18^' 



? • 



Colunms as on p. 175. 



The size is often lari^er than in the var. lissaua, but the proportions 

 ar(! the same except that the head may be a little larger and the hind 

 limb reaches the shoulder or the collar in males, the elbow of the 

 adpressed fore liml) or the axil in females. The dorsal scales are 

 usually less distinctly keeled, and those on the flanks are always 

 smooth ; 35 to 48 scales on the middle of the back correspond to the 

 length of the head. Collar sometimes entire, sometimes feebly 

 serrated. First and second superciliaries in contact with the first 

 supraocular. Masseteric disc large and often in contact with the 

 upper temporal. 5 anterior upper labials in 10 per cent, of the 

 specimens examined (on one side in six specimens, on both sides in 

 one). This insular form has a tendency to lose the occipital shield, in 

 fact it is entirely absent in the first and fifth specimens of the above 

 list ; it is small and separatee^ from the interparietal in 13 out of the 

 19 specimens examined, in which case the parietals form a short 

 median suture, small and just touching the interparietal in 3, forming 

 a narrow suture with the interparietal in 2. 



Dark brown to nearly black above, with the markings of the var. 

 lissana more or less distinct — at least in certain lights. Females have 

 a black vertebral streak, sometimes light-edged, and a light dorso- 

 lateral streak extends from the superciliary edge to the tail ; males 

 have more the style of markings shown by the specimens from 

 Lagosta. The lower parts are black, or of a blackish steel blue, with 

 pale blue spots on the sides ; in the males these blue spots are large 

 and often form a continuous band along the outer row of ventral 

 plates, in females they are small or very indistinct. The broken tail 



