Zoological Society. 3G5 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



May 23, 1865.— John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



A Revision of the Genera and Species of Amphisb^enians, 

 with the Descriptions of some New Species now in 

 the Collection of the British Museum. By Dr. 

 John Edward Gray, F.R.S., F.L.S., V.P.Z.S., etc. 



Sir Andrew Smith having kindly presented to the British Museum, 

 along with a number of other reptiles which he has described, the 

 types of his genus Monotrophis, which I had not before seen, and 

 two Amphisbsenians from Africa having been received from Mr. Wel- 

 witsch and from the collection of my late excellent and lamented friend 

 Dr. Balfour Baikie, and from Mr. Bates a species from the Amazons 

 which I believed had not hitherto been recorded in the Catalogue, I 

 proceeded to examine them ; and, for the purpose of making the 

 comparison the more complete, I was led on to study all the speci- 

 mens of this tribe which we have in the Museum. 



The natural result^of such an investigation was, that I was dis- 

 satisfied with the manner in which the species had hitherto been 

 arranged and described, and, after repeated examination, I have 

 reduced my observations to the following results : — 



The determination of the species themselves, and the means which 

 a paper resulting from the re-examination and comparison of all the 

 species in a large collection afford to a student, are much more im- 

 portant than any isolated description of the species regarded as new, 

 however detailed and particular the description may be ; and in a 

 comparative review of the species of a group or order the distinctions 

 may be stated in a more condensed form. 



The Amphisbeenians are very rarely collected ; hence few species 

 are found in museums and noticed in systematic catalogues. This is 

 explained by their living almost exclusively in the nests of ants, and 

 being seldom seen by the casual observer. There is reason to believe 

 that every warm country which has ants has some form of Amphis- 

 bsenians. Until lately they were thought to be confined to Tropical 

 America, though one was described by Vandeli as occurring in Spain 

 as long ago as 1780 ; but his essay and the animal itself were alike 

 so little known to naturalists, that Professors Hemprich (in 1820) 

 and Wagler each described A'andeli's species as new, the latter as a 

 South-American species. Professor Kaup described a species from 

 North Africa in 1830, and M. Gervais redescribed it as new in 1835. 

 MM. Dumeril and Bibron have described a specimen in the Leyden 

 Museum from Guinea, Dr. Andrew Smith one as occurring at the 

 Cape, and Dr. Peters has added another from the east coast of Africa. 

 The number of African species is in this essay raised to seven. As 

 yet none have been received from Asia Proper; but Sir diaries 

 Fellows brought from Xanthus the same species that is found lu 

 Spain, Portugal, and North Africa. 



