396 ME. G. A. BOULENGEB ON THE VARIETIES OE 



Scales on upper surface of tibia minute, keeled, smaller than dorsals ; 19 to 29 

 femoral pores on each side (usually 20 to 26) ; 28 to 36 lamellar scales under the 

 fourth toe. 



Upper caudal scales (PL XXVIII. fig. 3 a) strongly keeled and truncate or very 

 obtusely pointed; 30 to 38 scales in the fourth whorl behind the postanal granules. 



The enormous amount of variation in colour and markings which this form 

 undergoes, often irrespective of localities and among individuals living together, may 

 be gathered from the above synonymy, and especially from the general accounts given 

 by Eimer. Suffice it to say, for the purposes of the present work, that some specimens, 

 females and young, closely agree in colour and markings with de Betta's var. campestris 

 (Eimer's striata), which may be regarded as the primitive type from which the spotted, 

 reticulate, and uniformly coloured forms are derived. The colour of the head and 

 back varies from greyish brown to olive, grass-green, or bluish green ; striated 

 specimens are the exception, most of the specimens being spotted or reticulated with 

 black (PI. XXVII. figs. 4 & 6), the black spots often forming longitudinal series 

 (PI. XXVII. fig. 3), sometimes wavy cross-bands ; some specimens show only faint 

 traces of darker markings and lead to others which are uniformly olive or yellowish 

 brown (L. olivacea Raf., modesta Eimer). A blue or green ocellar spot is often 

 present above the axil, and sometimes acquires a large size. The lower parts are 

 usually white or greenish white, and without spots, except on the outer row of ventral 

 plates, which often bear blue or greenish-blue spots. In some specimens from Sicily 

 (var. sicula Bp.), which in structural characters entirely agree with the var. serpa, 

 the belly is orange or red in the males, yellow or white in the females, these 

 specimens being further remarkable for the brilliant green colour of the back, bordered 

 on each side by a more or less distinct whitish streak, as figured on PI. XXVII. 



fig. 7 \ 



The most remarkable colour-variation is that exhibited by the lizards found on the 

 Faraglioni rocks close to Capri (var. coerulea Eimer, faraglionensis Bedr.) : black or 

 bluish black above, with more or less distinct markings of a more intense black, 

 sapphire-blue or greenish blue beneath ; pale blue spots usually present on the sides ; 

 the supra-axillary blue ocellus always distinct (PI. XXIII. fig. 2). 



Specimens with blue belly and blue or blackish back, with or without lighter blue or 

 green spots, are reported from the Mezzagiorno rock near Palmarola, and Santo Stefano 

 Island near Ventotene. The vars. coeruleo-cosndescens, coerulescens monaconensis, and 

 ccerulescens gallensis of Eimer, from other small rocks near Capri, also with blue 

 belly, are practically intermediate in the dorsal coloration between the var. coerulea 

 and the lizards of Capri. 



1 J. Scherer, Blatter f. Aquar.-u. Terrar.-Kunde, xiv. 1903, p. 288, regards L. sicxda as a species distinct 

 from L. serpa, but I am unable to confirm the distinctive characters (collar, snpraciliary shields, ifec.) which 

 he adduces in favour of such a separation. 



