ANNALS 
MEDEDELINGEN 
OF THE 
VAN HET 
TRANSVAAL MUSEUMS 
/ \' V 
Vdi> hat ft 
i> m - 
VOL. 7 
\ Part 4 
— - ■ 
2 1921 
nal 
<S>' 
DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF ZONURUS, 
AND NOTES ON THE SPECIES OF ZONURUS 
OCCURRING IN THE TRANSVAAL 
By G. P. F. van Dam, Junior Assistant for Lower Vertebrates, 
Transvaal Museum. 
With 4 plates. 
Zonurus breyeri sp. nov. Plates I and II. 
Description based on one holotype and three paratypes. 
Head slightly longer than broad, strongly depressed. Head shields rugose; 
frontonasal about as broad as long, in contact with the rostral, separating 
the nasals, latter slightly swollen, nostrils in the posterior part of the nasal; 
praefrontals in contact with their inner angles; frontal hexagonal, slightly 
widened anteriorly; frontoparietals about as long as broad; interparietal 
between two pairs of parietals, being pointed anteriorly more sharply than 
posteriorly, in two specimens the interparietal touches the frontoparietals, in 
two other specimens it does not reach these shields, being separated from them 
by the first pair of parietals ; posterior parietals larger than the anterior ones ; 
six occipital spines, the outer ones largest and gradually getting smaller 
towards the middle, the middle pair very small; temporals large, keeled, five 
slightly curved irregular temporal spines on each side, the first or second 
lowest nearly as large or as large as the outer occipitals; four supraoculars, 
the anterior one longest, the second one broadest; four to five supraciliaries ; 
lower eyelid opaque; loreal and praeocular large; four suborbitals; rostral 
twice and a half as broad as deep, five upper labials, fourth and fifth separated 
by a suborbital shield; six lower labials, fifth and sixth keeled, bordered below 
by four large shields and one small one; small irregular chin shields; gular 
scales small, obtusely keeled; larger irregular scales under the neck; sides of 
neck with irregular erect spines. Dorsal scales large, forming regular trans- 
verse series, hardly keeled in the middle but more and more towards the sides, 
spinose on the sides, 24-26 transverse series (from occiput to base of tail) of 
about 18 scales. Ventrals quadrangular, mostly broader than long, smooth, 
the outer ones slightly keeled, forming 10-12 longitudinal and 24-26 trans- 
verse series. A pair of feebly enlarged praeanal plates, with smaller ones in 
17 
