260 LIZARDS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



have twenty-two to twenty-four scale rows about the body. 

 There is no other variation of note and, were it not that this 

 same variation occurs in one of the Lapac specimens, I should 

 regard the form with two pairs of parietals as a distinct 

 subspecies. 



Remarks, — This species is closely related to Brachymeles 

 burksi Taylor and B. honitx Dumeril and Bibron. It carries 

 the retrogression of the genus another step, and we find the 

 devolution complete from the most highly developed forms, 

 B, gracilis and B, schadenbergi, with well-developed pentadactyl 

 limbs, to this small legless species. 



DIBAMID^ 



Dibamidse Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. V 14 (1884) 120. 



''Tongue short, bifid posteriorly, pointed, undivided in front, 

 covered with curved lamellae or plicse. Teeth small, pointed, 

 hooked, none on palate. Skull compact ; no interorbital septum ; 

 no columella cranii; no arches; no infraorbital foramen; prae- 

 maxillary double. Limbs absent, the hind pair represented, in 

 the male, by a pair of flaps on the sides of the anal opening; no 

 rudiments of the sternal apparatus. Body vermiform, covered 

 with cycloid imbricate scales. No osteodermal plates. Eyes 

 concealed under the skin. No ear-opening. No prseanal pores." 

 (Boulenger.) 



One genus is known. 



Genus DIBAMUS Dumeril and Bibron 



Dibamus Dumeril and Bibron, Erp. Gen. 5 (1839) 833; Gray, Cat. 



Liz. (1845) 129. 

 Typhloscincus Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. (1864) 271. 

 Rhinophidium Steindachner, Novara Exped., Kept. (1869) 52. 



Snout normally covered by three large shields ; namely, rostral, 

 and a labial on each side which, however, may fuse into a single 

 shield; nostril pierced in rostral, with a straight horizontal 

 suture behind it; limbs totally absent in female, the hind pair 

 represented in the male by two flaplike rudiments; no preanal 

 pores; eggs with calcareous shell, not circular. 



There are three species of the genus known, only one of 

 which enters our territory. The genus is widely distributed 

 from Sumatra to New Guinea, the Nicobars, Borneo, and the 

 Philippines. 



