168 



Anolis ahli, sp. nov. 



Type. — ^A male, Museum of Comparative Zoology, No. 19905, from near 

 the Hydro-electric Plant, Trinidad Mts., Cuba: altitude 1500 feet. Professor 

 Emmett R. Dimn, collector. August 7, 1924. 



Diagnosis. — A medium-sized Anolis with smooth ventrals, a white dewlap 

 with a large rose-colored basal spot, with no mid-dorsal scales much enlarged 

 and with the scales of the whole preocular and upper nasal surfaces unusually 

 uniform in size and sharply and uniformly uni- or pluricarinate. 



Description. — Top of head with two rather faintly indicated diverging frontal 

 ridges and two still more faintly indicated continuing and converging prefrontal 

 ridges, enclosing a slight frontal trough; head-scales all keeled, unicarinate or 

 tricarinate; rostral low and very wide, lower than mental; about eight or nine 

 scales separating the nostrils; supra-ocular semicircles separated by at least 

 two and often three scales; occipital small, about half the size of the ear-opening 

 or less and separated from the supra-ocular semicircles by five or six scales 

 which have rather low keels and thus appear more rugose than carinate; supra- 

 ocular disk composed of nine to thirteen enlarged polygonal scales which are 

 distinctly keeled, the disk separated from the semicircles by one row of granules 

 but elsewhere surrounded by two or more rows; canthus rostralis distinct and 

 sharp, beginning with a long narrow scale over the upper anterior margin of 

 the eye and preceded by six canthals between this scale and the nostril; the 

 last two canthals next the nostril are very small ; reaching posteriorly from the 

 large elongate scale above the anterior border of the eye are three sharp, elon- 

 gate, oblique scales forming a superciliary ridge which only extends over about 

 two-thirds of the total length of the orbit; five loreal rows, the two lower rows 

 especially with keels along the inferior margins; seven supra-labials, the suture 

 between the fifth and sixth being under the center of the eye; temporals finely 

 granular especially in the central part of the area; a faintly indicated supra- 

 temporal line composed of two series of slightly enlarged granules; dorsals 

 minute, incHned to imbricate, pointed or keeled, a few mid-dorsal scales very 

 shghtly enlarged; ventral scales much larger, imbricate, smooth; scales of the 

 anterior aspect of the forearm much enlarged, slightly larger even than ventrals, 

 sharply keeled; those of anterior aspect of femur similar but shghtly larger; 

 scales of fingers and toes broad, strap-hke and sharply carinate; about 25 

 lamellae under phalanges II and III of the fourth toe; digital expansions narrow 

 and ill developed; tail strongly compressed, "without a fin," verticellate, the 

 enlarged row Umiting each segment being separated by about six or seven 

 smaller keeled scales; scales on upper edge of tail in a single row, raised and 

 spinous, those corresponding to the limiting rows being enlarged and projecting 

 upward and each of these large scales on the top of the tail separated by about 

 three of lesser size; a few slightly enlarged postanal scales, A distinct dermal 

 fold on neck. 



Color. — Brown above, whitish beneath; the whole chin striate and punctate 

 with dusky brown; ventrals with very minute brown dots; dewlap white, its 

 anterior border ivory white; a large rich, old-rose basal spot covering about 

 three-fourths of the total area of the dewlap. 



Besides the type there is another male specimen and a female 

 essentially similar in every detail. 



