Habitat. — Algeria (Tell and High Plateaux), Tunisia, and Tripoli 

 (Cyrenaica). Its reported occurrence at Biskra {fide Boettger) is, 

 as pointed out by Werner, probably due to a mistake. 



Very closely allied to 0. elegans and evidently derived from the same 

 common ancestor, but less advanced in the absence of a series of 

 granules bordering the supraoculars, and more so in the generally larger 

 size of the dorsal scales and the greater reduction or loss of the 

 occipital shield. 



