60 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
In brief, the Agamoid fauna of South Africa has no peculiar genera and 
is not very distinctive ; it comprises six or seven endemic species and 
several species which belong to the overlapping tropical area. 
The genus Agama is principally African, and has representatives also 
in south Asia and south-east Europe. 
Zonuridae. 
This whole family is characteristically South African, being confined 
to Africa south of the equator, with an odd species in Madagascar. 
Mocquard doubts the latter record on the grounds that the only evidence 
is in Cope’s original description, which is not authenticated with the usual 
data, whereas it is now known that the species occurs in German East 
Africa ; at the same time the fact that the species of Zonurus are often 
exceedingly localized in their distribution may explain the former part of 
the argument whilst it does not preclude the possibility of a disconnected 
distribution at the present day. There are four genera, the largest, Zonurus, 
comprising about ten species, of which eight occur in South Africa 
and only two of these (Z. cordylus and jonesii) extend northward into 
the tropical region (fide Tornier and Bocage). The species of Zonurus 
distribute themselves all over the South African region, some of the 
species being probably very localized (cp. capensis , warreni , and giganteus). 
The monotypic genus Pseudocordylus occurs along the coastal strip of 
Cape Colony and extends northwards in the eastern portion of the sub- 
continent as far as the Zoutpansberg District. 
The genus Chamaesaura has three species in the eastern portion of 
the sub-continent : one of these C. macrolepis is also recorded from 
Angola. The tropical species of this genus occur in Uganda, British 
Central Africa, and German East Africa. 
The genus Platysaurus has four species of which three are distributed 
in South Africa, one western and two eastern, and the fourth species 
P. torquatus occurs in Mozambique (precise locality unknown). 
From these facts of distribution it would seem highly probable that 
the family has been evolved in Southern Africa. 
Varanidae. 
Only two species occur in South Africa of which one, Varanus 
niloticus is common to almost the whole of Africa whilst the other A. albi- 
gularis occurs also in South Angola and in Nyassaland. The genus occurs 
in Africa, India, Malay Archipelago, and Australia, but not in Madagascar. 
A mphisbaenidae. 
Three genera are known in South Africa, but they form no charac- 
teristically South African association of species. 
The genus Ampliisbaena represented by a number of species in the 
tropical portions of America and Africa has two species in South Africa : 
A. violcccea extends from Zululand to Mozambique and A. quadrifrons 
occurs in Hereroland and as far south as Kimberley. 
The genus Monopeltis has about four species in South Africa of which 
probably all extend north of the boundary line : M. capensis and anchietae 
are western species whilst sphenorbynchus and granti (this latter only 
known from Beira) are eastern. This is an African genus of about a 
dozen species ; its headquarters are West Africa. 
