Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
58 
follows : — Geckonidae twenty-seven species, Agamidae about ten species, 
Lacertidae twenty species, Zonuridae sixteen species, Gerrhosauridae ten or 
eleven species, Scincidae thirty species, Varanidae two species, and Chamae- 
leontidae ten species. 
Geckonidae . 
Eleven genera are known, of which a good proportion are charac- 
teristically South African. Palmatogecko, Chrondrodactylus and Colopus 
are, so far as is known, confined to South Africa ; they are restricted to 
the western portion of the sub-continent and are probably all monotypic 
genera. 
The genus Homopholis has one (or two) species in the eastern portion 
of South Africa, a species is recorded from Abyssinia, and another, species 
occurs in Madagascar. The genus Oedura, which is otherwise known only 
from Australia, has tAvo representatives in South Africa, and the genus 
does not occur in any other part of Africa. 
The genus Pachydactylus, comprising thirteen or fourteen species, all 
confined to Africa south of the Equator, has twelve species in the South 
African region. P. bibroni has a very wide distribution ranging north- 
wards into Tropical Africa, but it should be regarded as truly South 
African, as it belongs to a section of seven recorded species of which all 
the other members are confined to South Africa. P. ocellalus is common 
in western Cape Colony, and is also recorded from Benguella and from 
Ascension Island. This genus reaches its greatest development in Cape 
Colony and the western portion of the sub-continent ; only one species, 
P. punctatus , is confined to the eastern portion (Mozambique, Zoutpans- 
berg District) of our region. 
Rhoptropus, a genus of three (or two) species, is only known from the 
western portion of southern Africa. P. ocellatus occurs in western Cape 
Colony, and R. afer is known from German South-West Africa and Angola. 
According to Dr. Jean Roux, however, this genus is identical with 
Phelsuma, a genus of eight or nine species occurring in East Africa, Mada- 
gascar, Comoro, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Bourbon, Rodriquez, Seychelles, and 
Andaman Islands. The genus Elasmodactylus has one species in British 
Namaqualand {fide Sclater) and another in the lower Congo region. 
Lygodactylus, a genus occurring in tropical and South Africa, and in 
Madagascar, has two representatives in South Africa. One of them, 
L. capensis • closely related to a Madagascar species, occurs in the tropics 
and extends south Avar ds into eastern Cape Colony ; the other species, 
L. ocellatus Roux, is only known from the Transvaal. Ptenopus gar ruins 
Smith, the only species of the genus, is known from German -South-West 
Africa and north-west Cape Colony. 
Phyllodactylus, a large genus recorded from the tropics of America, 
Australia, and Africa, has two species in South Africa, of which the better 
known P. porphyreus , occurs also in the Congo region, Madagascar, and 
Australia (assuming the identity of this species with P. m,armoratus of 
Australia) ; the only locality known to me for P. lineatus is Laingsburg, 
C.C. (Roux). 
Hemidactylus is almost a world- wide genus within the tropics. Only 
one species occurs within our area, and this H. mabouia is common 
to tropical Africa, Madagascar, West Indies, and South America. It is 
evident that the gecko fauna of South Africa is very characteristic and 
with a good proportion of endemic genera is Avell marked off from the 
tropical gecko fauna (which is comparatively poor in number of species 
