Vou. 111] VAN DENBURGH—REPTILES—CHINA, JAPAN, FORMOSA 239 
Leiolopisma laterale boettgeri Van Denburgh 
Diagnosis—Similar to L. laterale but with frontal usually 
separated trom the frontonasal by prefrontals; scales around 
body more numerous, twenty-eight to thirty-two rows around 
middle of body; fewer scales in a longitudinal row on back. 
Dark lateral band broader and with less definite lower border. 
Iype.—California Academy of Sciences No. 21,678. 
Ishigaki shima, Loo Choo Islands, Japan, May 25 to June 
ZENO): 
This subspecies seems to differ from the Formosan series 
in the separation of the prefrontal and frontal plates, the 
greater number of scales, the less slender habit, and the colora- 
tion. ‘lhe prefrontals separate the frontal from the frontonasal 
in all but two of the thirty-seven specimens (94.6% ), while 
this condition is found only in three (15.8%) of the nineteen 
specimens from Formosa. Many of the Ishigaki specimens 
are very young. For this reason, the scales have been counted 
in only twenty-six from this island. The number around the 
body is twenty-eight in ten specimens, twenty-nine in one, 
thirty in fourteen, and thirty-two in one. This is two scales 
- more than in the Formosan lizards. 61.5% have more than 
twenty-eight scale rows as against 5.2% of the Formosan; or, 
in other words, only 38.5% have not more than twenty-eight 
scale-rows, as against 94.7% of the Formosan. The number 
of scales in a series from the parietal to a line joining the backs 
of the thighs varies from fifty-nine to sixty-six, the most fre- 
quent number being sixty-one, and the average sixty-two and 
six-tenths as against the Formosan average of fifty-seven and 
six-tenths—a difference of five scales. All have a much broader 
dark lateral band than is found in the Formosan lizards. 
It is a pleasure to associate with this lizard the name of the 
well-known herpetologist, the late Dr. Oskar Boettger. 
All our specimens are from Ishigaki. Leiolopisma laterale 
has been recorded from two other islands of the Loo Choo 
group—Okinawa and Miyako—but we are unable to say 
whether or not they are identical with the Ishigaki examples. 
