LATASTIA LONGICAUDATA. 145 
The largest male from the Suakin and Tokar district measured 110 millim. from 
snout to vent, and the largest female 106 millim. 
This species has the habits of an Eremias, and is found among the sparse grassy 
vegetation of the littoral plain at Durrur, Suakin, Tokar, and Akik, in much the same 
conditions that L. neumanni, Matschie, is found on the plain at Lahej, on the opposite 
coast, in the neighbourhood of Aden. 
It has been recorded by Mr. Blanford from the littoral plain at Annesley Bay, and 
by Mr. Boulenger from the island of Dissei, at the mouth of the Bay. Since Professor 
Vaillant's and M. Mocquard's record of its occurrence in Somaliland, the collections of 
reptiles made of recent years in Abyssinia, Shoa, Western and Southern Somaliland, and 
British East Africa, by various explorers, further prove it to have a wide distribution 
over the eastern promontory of the continent, as it has been found between Obbia and 
Berbera, near Berbera, to the west of the Juba river, and at Fuladoya, near Mount Kenia ; 
also at Nguruman, and between Kilima-njaro and Lake Victoria Nyanza, by Mr. Oscar 
Neumann. It thus ranges in Africa from about 20° N. lat. to 4° S. of the Equator ; but 
as the littoral plain of the Red Sea extends a long way beyond Durrur, it has probably 
a considerably more extended range to the north than is at present assigned to it. 
The types of this species are stated by Reuss to have been obtained by Ruppell, at 
Tor, in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and when he described them he had others before 
him collected by Ruppell in Abyssinia. It has never been recorded from Asia since 
Reuss's day. 
The ventrals are wonderfully uniform in all of the specimens from the Suakin district, 
as six are invariably present across the middle of the belly ; but variation exists in the 
number of ventrals between the collar and the prseanal region, although not to any extent, 
as the lowest number recorded is 27 and the highest 33. The dorsal scales across the 
middle of the body vary from 54 to 68, and the collar-plates range from 8 to 14. In a 
young specimen from Suakin there are only 9 — 9 upper labials ; but the intermediate 
numbers up to 13 are met with. Although the number of upper labials may be 
symmetrical on both sides of the head, it does not follow that the same shield is the 
subocular on the right and left of the head, as in 12 out of 23 specimens 
asymmetry prevails. In one specimen it is the 5th and the 6th, in another the 6th 
and 7th, in nine the 7th and 8th, and in one the 8th and 9th. Among these Suakin 
lizards there are never fewer than 10 femoral pores on each limb, but in two 13 occur 
asymmetrically associated either with 11 or 12, while in three 13 are present 
symmetrically. 
Two females obtained by Mr. Oscar Neumann at Nguruman and one of the same 
sex from El Jeckar, the most southern known localities of its distribution, differ only 
slightly in their coloration from the Suakin lizards. The back is marked by longitudinal 
lines of brown spots, and the dark mesial line is very little, if at all, more defined than 
those external to it. 
