230 LIZARDS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Measurements of Emoia cyanurum (Lesson). 



mm. 



Total len^h 140 



Tail 90 



Snout to vent 50 



Snout to foreleg 22.5 



! Axilla to groin 23 



Foreleg 18 



Hind leg 24 



Variation. — This widely distributed species is very variable.* 

 The length of the hind leg varies in its reach between the elbow 

 and the shoulder; the number of scale rows varies between 

 twenty-six and thirty-six, and of the lamellse under the fourth 

 toe, between forty and sixty. Adult specimens lose the stripes 

 and become plain brown, even on the tail. None of the speci- 

 mens shows more than three golden to greenish lines on the 

 back. 



Remarks. — Mr. Schultze, the collector of the specimen, 

 assures me that the species is unbelievably numerous on the low 

 island of Comiran, and that it is the only lizard there, exclusive 

 of geckos. It very probably occurs on other islands of the 

 Palawan-Balabac groups. In the Sulu Archipelago I found it 

 on a single small island, known as Tulian Kock, situated directly 

 west from Jolo at a distance of about a kilometer. The island 

 is about 200 meters long and less than 100 meters wide with an 

 elevation of about 20 meters. Three specimens were captured, 

 while many seen escaped. The brilliant blue tail of this spe- 

 cies makes it conspicuous and if it were common in the Archi- 

 pelago its presence would surely have been observed on others 

 of the numerous islands visited. 



Girard's Philippine specimens were probably from somewhere 

 in the Balabac Straits, whether on Philippine territory or not 

 I am not certain. He states, ''the same species was also met 

 with at the Sandwich Islands, and the Philippine Archipelago." 

 This is the first and I believe the only Philippine record prior 

 to the specimens recorded by myself from Tulian Rock and 

 Comiran. 



The species is widely distributed in the Moluccas, Papuasia, 

 Polynesia, Java, Borneo, Celebes, and Sanghir Islands. 



Genus RIOPA Gray 



Riopa Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2 (1839) 332; Cat. Liz. (1845) 

 ■96. 



* Philippine specimens vary but little from the one described. 



