DIAGNOSIS OF A NEW CALIFORNIAN LIZARD. 



BY 



Leonhard Stejneger, 



Curator, Dcpartmait of Reptiles and Batraehians. 



Among a number of lizards collected by my friend Mr. H. W. Hen- 

 shaAV, at Witch Creek, San Diego County, Southern California, during 

 the present mouth (May, 1893), I find a most distinct new species be- 

 longing to the genus Xantusia. It was taken among rocks at an alti- 

 tude of about 2,700 feet. I propose to name it in honor of its discoverer. 



Xantusia henshav^i, sp. nov. 



Diagnosis. — Two interfrontonasals;* one row of superciliaries; 

 frontoparietals in contact; an interoccipital ; x^upil vertical. 



Habitat. — Witch Creek, San Diego County, California. 



Type.— U. S. National Museum, No. 20.339; H. W. Henshaw coll.; 

 May, 1893. 



Reserving a full description, with figures, for a future paper I will 

 here only call attention to the most salient characters by which this 

 species may be separated from the other two species of genus. It dif- 

 fers from both, and in fact from all the members of the family, by the 

 possession of a well-developed interoccipital shield. It also difters 

 Irom the two Xantusias as well as from Lepidophyma by having two 

 interfrontonasals, in this respect agreeing with the Cuban genus Cri- 

 cosaura. Like Xantusia rigilis it has but one series of suiierciliaries 

 (or supraoculars), while A", rirersiana has two. It is longer and 

 slenderer than the latter, and is more depressed than either. The 

 color diflers from both in being blackish- brown on the upx)er surface 

 irregularly marbled with cream-colored lines which on the tail incline 

 towards forming cross bands; under side whitish; scales on back 

 small, uniform, fiat tubercles; ventral scales in fourteen longitudinal 

 and thirty-three transverse rows, preanal scales in three transverse 

 rows, the two median posterior scales being the largest; about ten 

 femoral pores on each side. Total length, 148"'".; length to posterior 

 edge of occipital plates, 13'"™.; length to vent, 65""'. 



*The nomenclature of the head shields of the Xantu.siido'. is yet unsettled. As the 

 most detailed description is Cope's description of Xantusia riveraiana (Proc. Phil. 

 Ac, 1883, pp. 30,31) I have here adopted his nomenclature in order to avoid confu- 

 sion and to facilitate comparison with the one here given. 



467 



Proceedings Kational Museum, Vol. XVI— No. 944. 



