1873.] F. Stoliczka — Andamanese and Nicobarese 'Reptiles. 1G5 



GTMNODACTTLrS WiCKSII, n. Sp. 



A small species, resembling in general character some of those de- 

 scribed by Jerdon and Beddome from South India. The body is moderately 

 slender and depressed, covered with very small, keeled tubercles which have 

 the appearance of pointed granules ; on the back there are numerous larger, 

 but similarly formed, tubercles interspersed, and on the side of the belly 

 these larger tubercles become distinctly spinulose ; tail verticillate, with 

 similar spinules, exactly" as in Hemidactylus frenatus. On the snout the 

 sharp granules are, as usually, somewhat larger than on the top of the head, 

 but none are enlarged above the labials. The rostral reaches to the upper 

 side of the snout, and is followed by two small shields, separated by a still 

 smaller pentagonal azygos, the upper angle of which fits into a posterior emar- 

 gination of the rostral. The nostril is lateral and directed somewhat back- 

 wards, it lies immediately behind the rostral, and is followed by two slight- 

 ly enlarged and diverging shields, the anterior angles of which nearly touch 

 the rostral, thus almost entirely isolating the nasal opening from the first 

 labial and the shield behind the rostral. No particularly enlarged scales 

 round the eye. Seven upper and lower labials, the first are in each case the 

 longest, the succeeding gradually decrease in size, the last are very small ; 

 all are very low. Ear opening forms an oval, oblique slit, its distance from the 

 eye is slightly less than that from the eye to the end of snout. Lower 

 rostral large, obtusely pointed behind, followed on each side by a slightly 

 enlarged shield, separated by smaller ones ; there are no particularly enlarg- 

 ed chin-shields. The scales on the throat and anterior breast are finely 

 keeled ; those on the belly hexagonal and across the middle in about 

 nineteen longitudinal series. Prse-or post-anals not enlarged. Sub-caudals 

 along the middle line very little larger than the other shields covering the 

 lower side. Eeproduced portions of the tail are uniformly scaly, without 

 enlarged tubercles. 



The male has four prae-anai pores, situated between the femora in a shallow 

 transverse depression, and quite separate from these are four or five femoral 

 pores placed at the hinder lower edge of the femur, somewhat nearer to the hip 

 than to the knee. Toes long and slender ; basal portion with three or four 

 transverse, squarish plates, the last the largest ; terminal phalanges very 

 much narrower. 



Colour. Above, powdered brownish grey and white, a series of 

 whitish, almost continuous spots along the middle of the back, extending 

 on to the tail. There are six or seven of these spots from the nape to the 

 base of the tail, and each of them is edged anteriorly and laterally with 

 black, sometimes the lateral black edges dcvclope into elongated spots and arc 

 most distinct. On the tail the white spots are less distinctly developed, but 

 the transverse black margins well marked. The sides of the body, of the tail 

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