massetericum, which reaches the supratemporalia and the supra- 

 labialia, is generally considered as a differential characteristic 

 of L. viridis meridionalis CYREN. There are no available data on 

 the frequency of this feature in the Balkan Peninsula. Among 

 populations of L. viridis from the Dobrudgea region of Southeastern 

 Rumania, there are some individuals which present this feature. 1 

 found few such individuals in the nothern parts of the Dobrudgea, 

 in the Macin Mountains. But in the Southern Ukraine and, much more 

 in the north, in Bassarabia, there are some lizards which present 

 the typical massetericum of L. viridis meridionalis. These facts 

 were not tested by statistical methods, and we cannot be sure that 

 there is a real cline, But these data lead us to the hypothesis 

 that the massetericum changes in a clinal fashion from larger in 

 the south to smaller in the north. 



A distinctive mode of variability is to be found in Lacerta 

 praticola EVERSM. This species is found in the Caucasus, in 

 the Balkan Peninsula and in the south of Rumania, being absent 

 from Asia Minor (MERTENS, 1952). The species has been split 

 into geographical races: L. praticola praticola EVERSM. in the 

 Caspian basin of the Caucasus, and L. praticola pontica LANTZ 

 and CYREN in the pontic basin of the Caucasus and in the Balkan 

 Peninsula. In an earlier paper (STUGREN, 1961), I suggested 

 that the populations from the Banat province in south-western 

 Rumania, belong to a peculiar geographical race, described by 

 SOBOLEWSKY (1930) as L. praticola hungarica , and I suggested 

 the revalidation of the name hungarica . To my mind, the 

 populations in the neighborhood of Bucharest represent an 

 intermediate form between hungarica and pontica . Other Rumanian 

 herpetologists (FUHN and VANCEA, 1961), do not recognize the 

 validity of the hungarica race, and neither did MERTENS and 

 WERMUTH (1960). But the taxonomic status of the population 

 from south-western Rumania is not the main problem to be dis- 

 cussed here. Whether we accept the validity of the hungarica 

 race or not, we must recognize the fact that the populations 

 from south-western Rumania have a distinctive pholidosis, which 

 closely resembles that of the remote L. praticola praticola . In 

 this case, two population-groups, situated at the geographical 

 extremities of the species range (Eastern Caucasus and Banat), 

 present common traits. L. praticola hungarica and L. praticola 

 praticola are much closer to each other than to L. praticola 

 pontica . According to the "rules" of clinal variability, and 

 according to the theory of RENSCH as well, populations situated 

 at the geographical extremes of the species-range are usually 

 very differentiated from each other. The variability of L. praticola 

 follows an opposite trend. I suggested the term anticlinal for 

 this pattern of variability. 



