Laeerta. 281 



Limbs short, hind limb of male reaching only the elbow or the 

 axil ; 47-51 scales across middle of body, distinctly larger 

 towards the belly, 2 or 3 corresponding to one ventral plate ; 

 gular scales 25-29; 5 or 6 rows of small shields tinder the 

 thigh ; femoral pores 16-19 Subsp. bifhynica. 



The only male specimen from lelenovka at my disposal (Jj. armeniaca, 

 Mehely) could not be determined by means of this sj'nopsis, as it falls 

 in the second division as regards the length of the hind limb, and in 

 the first as regards the number of dorsal and gular scales. There is 

 nothing distinctive in the character of the scales near the belly, and 

 although it is true the female from the Bithynian Olympus (L. 

 hithynica, Mehely) diifers from the specimens from lelenovka in 

 having 4 instead of 3 series of small shields between the large femoral 

 shields and the pores * as well as a slightly greater number of dorsal 

 and gular scales, the differences are too slight to justify the establish- 

 ment of a variety, and besides they are found to break down if put to 

 the test of larger series than Mehely had the privilege of examining. 

 The same author mentions and figures a single specimen in which the 

 first supraocular is in contact with the frontal. Such a case I have never 

 met with either in this variety or in any of the oriental forms which I 

 unite under Laeerta muralis, with the single exception of a specimen 

 from Elisabethpol (var. saxicola) in which it is so on one side only.t 



The var. valentini, Boettger, Ber. Senck. Gres. 1892, p. 145 (£. saxi- 

 cola, subsp. valentini, Mehely, t. c. p. 543, pi. xxi, fig. 6), does not appear 

 to be separable from the var. chalybdea. 42 to 48 scales across the 

 body, 19 to 21 femoral pores. Back green, with black spots and ver- 

 miculations. From snout to vent 75 millim. Earabagh and Armenia. 



The name, Laeerta eomposita, Mehely, Ann. Mus. Hung, vii, 1909, 

 p. 564, has been suggested for specimens from the Thana Valley in 

 Transcaucasia, provisionally referred to L. eawcaeica, which were 

 suspected to be hybrids between that species and L. saxieola, var. 

 defilippii. 



I am indebted to M. Lantz for a male specimen from the Ban s- 

 Tsklevi Valley, near Borjon, Govt. Tifiis, out of a dozen examined by 

 himj which appears to me to agree with Mehely's L. eomposita, 

 especially as regards the number of longitudinal series of ventral 



* These series of scales vary from 3 to 5 in the Mesopotamian specimens. 



t Yet Mehely (Ann. Mus. Hung, viii, 1910, p. 223), gives " Frontale . . . 

 of ters an das crste Supraoculare anstossend " as one of the features character- 

 istic of his Archxolacertse, 



X Like i. derjugini, but imlike the typical L. saxicola, this lizard occurs in 

 damp situations with dense vegetation. 



