1904.] LACERTA DEPRESSA OF CAMERANO. 333 



six in number*, though very detailed, do not cover by any means 

 the variations which the specimens show. I quite agree with 

 Boettgert in regarding L. depressa and its varieties as not 

 specifically separable from the L. muralis of S.W. Asia, which 

 embraces the forms named L. chalyhdea, L. saxicola, L. portschinskiiy 

 and L. defilippii. With these forms I propose to deal elsewhere,, 

 and my object on the present occasion is merely to give accurate 

 descriptions of the individual specimens which are the types of 

 L. depressa. One of them is in the British Museum, one has 

 passed into the collection of Dr. de Bedriaga and is not available 

 to me at present, whilst the four others are preserved in the Turin 

 Museum. I deal with the five specimens in order of size. 



1. Male. — Snout obtusely pointed; the greatest depth of the 

 head equals the distance between the eye and the tympanum. 

 Rostral not entering the nostril, forming a naiTow sutui-e with 

 the frontonasal + ; fi'ontal as long as its distance from the end of 

 the snout ; a complete series of granules between the two principal 

 supraoculars and the supraciHaries ; fourth supraocular divided 

 into two ; parietals once and a half as long as broad, not in con- 

 tact with the upper supraocular § ; the upper border of the parietal 

 very slightly concave in front for the accommodation of a rather 

 large upper temporal shield ; occipital half as long, but a little 

 broader than the interparietal ; temporal scales small and granular,; 

 tympanic and masseteric shields well developed, the latter oval, 

 oblique, and separated from the upper temporal by two series of 

 granules ; four upper labials anterior to the subocular, the lower 

 border of which is nearly as long as the upper. 



Collar even-edged, composed of 11 plates; 31 scales on a line 

 between the symphysis of the chin-shields and the median plate 

 of the collar. 



Body much depressed. Dorsal scales roundish-hexagonal, flat, 

 faintly keeled on posterior part of back ; 60 scales across the 

 middle of the body, 3 or 4 transverse series corresponding to a 

 ventral plate, 44 to the length of the head. Ventral plates in 6 

 longitudinal and 26 transverse sei'ies. Anal plate preceded by a 

 nearly equally large shield, the two plates bordered by a semi- 

 circle of 9 small plates. 



Hind limb reaching the collar. Scales on upper surface of tibia 

 rhomboidal, keeled, and a little larger than the dorsals, 8 trans- 

 verse series of the former corresponding to 10 of the latter. 

 Femoral pores 22-21. 27 lamellar scales under the fourth toe. 



Upper and lateral scales at the base of the tail strongly keeled, 

 those on the sides raised behind, subtrigonal, squarely truncate ; 

 the whorls alternately longer and shorter, but not very markedly 



* Bedriaga says seven, but this is probablj' throuajh a lapsus calami. 



t Ber. Senck. Gas. 1892, p. 141. 



X As occurs sometimes in both thejf. typica and the var. hedriagee. 



§ Mehelj'jAnn. Mus. Hung. ii. 1904, p. 367, has strangely overrated the systematic 

 importance of this character, which is inconstant not only in Asiatic examples but 

 also in the European (numei'ous exceptions from Fi-ance, Spain and Portugal, Italj',, 

 Islands of Mediterranean) and North African. 



