EUPREPIS VENUSTUS. 229 



GENUS EUPREPIS, WAGL. 



GEN. CHAR. Body subfusifbrm, protected by keeled scales. Head 

 subconical and depressed. Nostril in one plate ; one pair of supra- 

 nasals. Parietals separated, contiguous, or united into one plate. 

 Middle occipital distinct, or combined with the latero-occipitals ; a 

 pair of postoccipitals. Lower eyelid with a transparent disk. Auri- 

 cular aperture more or less conspicuously denticulated or lobulated in 

 front. Maxillary teeth compressed and truncated. Palate toothed. 

 Limbs four, strong ; five fingers and five toes, compressed, unequal, 

 clawed. Subdigital plates smooth. Palms and soles tubercular. 

 Tail subconical and tapering. 



is, WAGL. Naturl. Syst. Atnph. 1830, 161. WIEGM. Herp. Mex. I, 

 1834, 11. DUM. & BIBR. Erp6t. g<n. V, 1839, 663. GRAY, Catal. Lizz. Brit. Mus. 

 1845, 110. DUM. & A. DUM. Catal. meth. Kept. Mus. d'hist. nat. ii, 1851, 158. 



OBSERV. The elements which constitute this genus are, as yet, 

 more or less intermingled with those arranged under the head of Tili- 

 qua, requiring a thorough and critical study : a task we could not un- 

 dertake for want of sufficient materials at our command. Should it 

 also become necessary to separate generically Euprepis delandii, E. bel- 

 cheri, E. gravenJiorsti, and E. venustus, the above diagnosis must then 

 be partially modified, so as to read: "parietal plates separated; middle 

 occipital, distinct." Then also the portion of the diagnosis of Rachites 

 or Ghionia, whichever of these names be chosen for the species just 

 alluded to, will read : " parietal plates united into one ; middle occi- 

 pital combined with the latero-occipitals." The remaining generic 

 characters may likewise have to be further subdivided. Thus, we 

 would have a genus analogous to the one proposed further on, under 

 the appellation of Emoa, embracing such Eumeces in which a similar 

 union of the cephalic plates is observed. 



EUPREPIS VENUSTUS, Gird. 

 (Plate XXVI, figs. 1-8.) 



CHAR. SPEC. Corpore et capiie gracilibus atque depressis. Cauda pos- 

 tice subconica. Squamis in ires et quadraginta usque ad quinqiie et 



58 



UJU7BRSIT7 



