ANNIELLID^. 299 



Fam. 10. ANNIELLID^. 



Aniellidoe, Cope, Proc. Ac. Vldlad. 1SG4. 



Aniellidte, Bmdenger, Ann. c^- May. N. H. (5) xiv. 1884. 



Tongue villose, smooth and bifid anteriorly*. Teeth large, few, 

 fang-like, with short swollen base. Palate toothless. Skull ap- 

 proaching the Ophidian type, /. e. lacking the pnrsphenoidal vacuity 

 and consequently the iuterurbital septum, and the bones which con- 

 stitute the brain-case firmly united ; no columella cranii, no squa- 

 mosal ; postorbital arch ligamentous ; pterygoids in contact with 

 sphenoid ; an infraorbital fossa ; praimaxillary single ; nasal and 

 frontal divided ; parietal single ; praj- and postorbital in contact, 

 separating the frontal from the border of the orbit, liody vermi- 

 form f. Eyes and ears concealed. Scales soft, cycloid-hexagonal, 

 strongly imbricate. 



A single genus, which appears to be a strongly degraded form of 

 the AnfjuidcB, similarly as the Aaelytropidce and Dibamidce are to 

 the Scincidce. 



1. ANNIELLA. 



Auniella, 6r>«y, Ann. Si- May. N. H. (2) x. 1852, p. 440 ; Co/;e, Proc. 

 Ac. Philad. 1864, p. 230; Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Max., Rept. p. 460. 



California. 



1. Anniella piilchra. 



Anniella pidchra, Gray, I. c, a?id Zool. Herald, p. 154, pi. xxviii. ; 

 Bocourt, I. c. pi. xxii. G. fig. 2. 



Head much depressed, snout cuneiform ; eyes concealed under 

 several small scales resembling lids ; rostral largo, in contact with 

 the nasal, separated from the frontal by a pair of pra^frontals ; 

 frontal large, heptagonal, broader than long, its posterior border 

 forming a suture with a nearly equally large interparietal, the 

 posterior border of which is emarginate to receive a small occipital ; 

 parietals very small ; a larger anterior and two smaller posterior 

 supraoculars ; nostril pierced in a large nasal resembling an anterior 

 labial ; five upper labials, first very small, situated below the nasal, 

 on the lower surface of the snout ; second in contact with the prse- 

 frontal, second with a loroal, third with the oculars, fourtli small ; 

 mental pentagonal, followed by a pair of large postmeutals ; six 

 lower labials. Scales smooth, hexagonal, twenty-four (or twenty- 



* Resembling strikingly tliat of Hcloderma. 



I Wliothcr rucliuicnis of tlic sliouldcr and liip-jnirdlcs exist, is at present 

 unknown. 



