The species and subspecies of the lizard family Scincidae 

 described below were obtained by the author in July-August 1962 

 during his work with the first Indonesian-Soviet Zoological 

 Expedition on the islands of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago, In 

 addition to the main task - the study of the biology of the Giant 

 Indonesian Monitor (Varanus komodoensis Ouwens), the expedition 

 investigated the fauna of the islands inhabited by it: Komodo, 

 Padar and Rintja, which lie in the southern part of the Flores 

 Sea, east of Sumbawa Island. The herpetological collection 

 consists of more than 200 specimens of lizards and snakes and 

 is deposited at the Zoological Institute of the Academy of 

 Sciences of the USSR and at the Bogor Zoological Museum in Java, 

 where the holotypes of the new species have also been deposited. 



The author expresses his debt of gratitude to the head of 

 the Indonesian-Soviet expedition, Dr. Sampurno Kadarsan, the 

 director of the Bogor Zoological Museum, who was kind enough 

 to put at my disposal the rich collection of his Museum for 

 comparative studies and for identification. 



SPHEN0M0RPHUS MERTENSI sp. n. (Figures 1 and 2) 



Diagnosis, A short- legged lygosome of medium size with 5 

 supraocular scutes, 26 to 28 rows of smooth scales around midbody 

 and several enlarged preanals. A tendency towards the formation 

 of an undivided transparent disc is observed in the structure of 

 the lower eyelid. 



Holotype. The Bogor Zoological Museum (Indonesia), No. 975, 

 1 female, adult, Island of Padar in the Lesser Sunda Archipelago, 

 8 August 1962, I.S. Darevskii. 



Paratypes, The Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences 

 of the USSR (Leningrad), No. 17597, 2 specimens, adult, same 

 locality. 



Description. Head obtuse anteriorly. Lower eyelid covered 

 with unequal scales, with central scales markedly enlarged, forming 

 a slightly distinct semitransparent disc (Figure 2). Ear opening 

 oval, with 3 slightly distinct scale lobules in its anterior part. 

 Nostril in nasal scute, supranasal absent. Frontonasal markedly 

 wider than long, meeting with rostral anteriorly and in close contact 

 with frontal posteriorly, separating the two prefrontals. Frontal 



