PHRYNOSOMA SOLARIS, WITH A NOTE ON ITS 

 DISTRIBUTION. 



BY JOHN VAN DENBURGII. 



On page 229 of his " Catalogue of the Specimens of 

 Lizards in the British Museum " (pubhshed in 1845), 

 J. E. Gray, in the enumeration of specimens of P/iryno- 

 sonia coronatnm, wrote " d — Aduh, in spirits. The 

 spines on the occiput forming a continued frill. Cali- 

 fornia. P. Solaris Gray, B. M." 



This description, though so short, states the character 

 which separates the species, now universally known as 

 Phrynosoma regale, from all other known members of the 

 genus. Since the A. O. U. Code expressly says that an 

 identifiable description is sufficient for the establishment 

 of a specific name, and since it was not until 1858 that 

 Girard* described the same species under the name of 

 P. regale, the latter is a synonym of, and must give place 

 to, P. solan's Gray. 



It seems strange that this name has been so generally 

 ignored by herpetologists since Gray. Indeed, Cope 

 appears to be the only author who mentions it at all,t 

 and he merely as a synonym of P. regale, overlooking 

 the fact that P. Solaris is much the older name. 



Boulenger$ mentions the only specimen in the British 

 Museum under the head oi P. regale, although it is doubt- 

 less Gray's type of P. Solaris. 



A specimen in the collection of the California Academy 

 of Sciences, from Las Animas Ba}'^, Lower California, 

 considerably extends the known range to this species. It 

 appears to differ in no way from Arizonan specimens. 



* U. S. Explor. Exped. under Chas. Wilkes, 1858, p. 406. 

 t Proc. Acad. Phil., 1866, p. 302. 

 tCat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 1885, vol. ii, p. 

 2d Sek., Vol. IV. September 25, 1894. 



