264 



S A U R I A. 



1. EMOA ATROCOSTATA, Grd. 



SPEC. CHAR. Body slender, rather depressed. Scales small, disposed 

 upon fifty-six longitudinal series. Postfrontals separated. Middle 

 occipital plate distinct. Auricular aperture moderate, subcircular, 

 provided anteriorly with one or two erect scales. Tail subcylindri- 

 cal, somewhat compressed. Above bronzed, spotted with black ; 

 sides black, speckled with white. Beneath unicolor, occasionally 

 of a soiled hue. 



SYN. Scincus atrocostalus, LESS. Voy. Coq. Zool. II, I, 1830, 50, PI. IV, fig. 3. 

 Tlliqua freycinetii, Cocr. Tab. synopt. Scincoid. (Compt. rend. Acad. des Sc. IV, 

 1837.) 



Eumeces freycinetii, BUM. & BIBB. Erpet. gen. V, 1839, 648. 

 Mabouya atrocostatus, GRAY, Catal. Lizz. Brit. Mus. 1845, 95. 



DESCR. The body is slender, and quite depressed, broader than 

 deep, covered with rather small scales, compared to those of the other 

 species, hence, the longitudinal series which they constitute are much 

 more numerous. We observe about fifty-six of them : ten or twelve 

 on the dorsal region, arid fourteen or sixteen on the abdominal region. 

 Larger on the tail, they are subequal above and on the sides, whilst the 

 middle inferior series are transversely elongated, and much larger than 

 all the rest. The preanal series is larger than the adjoining ones. 

 The tail itself is but a little longer than the body and head combined, 

 subconical, posteriorly compressed, and, as usual, tapering. The fore 

 limbs, when stretched forwards, extend as far as the anterior rim of 

 the orbit ; the hind ones do not reach to the axillae, and the two 

 pairs cross each other for about the length of the carpus and tarsus. 

 The granulation of the palms and soles is rather coarse, and the plates 

 beneath the digits rather broad. 



The head is depressed, wedge-shaped, anteriorly narrow. The post- 

 frontal plates are kept apart by the contiguity of the vertex plate with 

 the prefrontal. The supranasals are well developed, and widely sepa- 

 rated also. The auricular aperture is proportionally larger than in the 

 two following species ; its anterior margin exhibiting one well-deve- 

 loped, and two very small, erect scales. 



The color above is either bronze or greenish-olive, speckled with black 

 and whitish ; the sides being made black by an interrupted streak of 



