Lacertidie. & 



DisTEiBrTiojsr. 



Europe and Asia to the northernmost limit of Eeptilian life, east- 

 ward to Saghalien and Japan, southward to Borneo, Java, Sumatra 

 and Ceylon ; Africa, exclusive of Madagascar and the Seychelles. 



Europe, Asia, Af jrica : Lacerta, Acanthodactylus, Ophiops, Eremias.. 



Europe, Africa : Algiroides, Psammodromus. 



Asia, Africa : Philochortus, Latastia, Scaptira. 



Asia : Apeltonotus, Tachydrnmus, Plaiyplacopus, Gabrita, Macma- 

 honia. 



Africa : Nucras, Gastropholis, Bedriagaia, Poromera, Tropidosaura^ 

 Ichnotropis, Aporosaura, Solaspis. 



Palsearctic Eegion : Lacerta, Algiroides, Latastia, Acanthodactylus, 

 Apeltonotus, Tachydromus, Platyplacopus, Psammodromus, Ophiops, 

 Eremias, Scaptira, Macmahonia. 



Oriental or Indo-Malay Eegion * : Tachydromus, Cabrita, Ophiops. 



Ethiopian Eegion : Nucras, Lacerta, Algiroides, Philochortus, Latas- 

 tia, Acanthodactylus, Gastropholis, Bedriagaia, Poromera, Tropidosaura, 

 Ichnotropis, Eremias, Scaptira, Aporosaura, Holaspis. 



Including, of course, the genus Nucras, now restricted to Tropical 

 and South Africa, but which there is reason to believe was represented 

 in Europe in the Oligocene period, all the Ethiopian genera may be 

 looked upon as derived from Palsearctic forms ; although equally 

 numerous, and even more diversified, Aporosaura and Holaspis being 

 the most aberrant of the family, there is every reason to regard them 

 as modifications of more northern types. As to the very poor Indo- 

 Malay Lacertid fauna, all except Cabrita are obviously mere streamers 

 from the Palsearctic fauna, and, from theoretical considerations, we 

 may say the same of Cabrita. If we consider the present composition 

 of the Palsearctic fauna, the conclusion is reached that the centre from 

 which the members of the family have radiated from very early 

 times corresponds roughly to what is now S.E. Europe, Asia Minor, 

 and Transcaucasia, where several primitive forms have maintained 

 themselves, t 



* As defined by Blanford, Phil. Trans, oxliv, 1901, p. 432, who regarded the 

 Punjab and Sind, with Western Eajputana and Baluchistan, as the south- 

 eastern extremity of the Mediterranean subregion of the Palaearotic region, 

 extending westward, through Persia and Arabia, to the Sahara. 



t In accordance with the theory of " oriental migration " supported by 

 A. Bngler, Vers. Entw. Pflanzenw. i (1879), and by E. Soharff, History of the 

 European Fauna, p. 245 (1899). 



