62 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
Gerrhosau ridae. 
This family has its headquarters in South Africa and Madagascar. 
Of the five genera, three occur in our area and two are peculiar to 
Madagascar. The genus Gerrhosaurus has about five or six species, of 
which one species, typicus , is only known from north-west Cape Colony : 
flavigularis is found almost throughout tropical (not in West Africa) and 
South Africa ; validus occupies a strip of country from South Angola to 
the Zoutpansberg District ; and major is principally an eastern species 
ranging from East Africa to Natal. I regard the genus Gerrhosaurus as 
truly South African, though several of the species do extend beyond the 
northern boundary. Amongst the lizards it is a general rule that species 
of undoubted tropical relationship do not extend southward into 
south-west Cape Colony (cp. Mabuia striata , Lygosoma sundervalli , 
Ablepharus wahlbergi ). On the other hand, Gerrhosaurus flavigularis 
does occur in south-west Cape Colony, in spite of its extensive range 
within the tropics ; and this is the case also with Pachydactylus bibroni 
and other South African species of like distribution. Again, Gerrhosaurus 
major , until recently, was known only from Zanzibar Island, but has since 
been recorded from German East Africa, and from Togoland in West 
Africa. In 1907, Mr. Boulenger described grandis from Zululand, but 
from the evidence of material from the Barberton District I have 
reduced grandis as a synomyn of major. G. bergi of German East Africa 
appears to be very closely allied to major, and so also is G. bottegi\ 
described from Erithraea. 
The genera Tetradactylus and Cordylosaurus are characteristically 
South African. The former has four species : T. seps occupies the 
coastal strip of Cape Colony, T. tetradactylus is only known from south- 
west Cape Colony, T. breyeri is a Natal and Transvaal species and 
T. africanus is recorded from Natal, Namaqualand, and South Angola. 
Cordylosaurus trivittatus ranges from western Cape Colony as far as 
South Angola and C. tessellata , doubtfully distinct, is recorded from 
Namaqualand. 
Scincidae. 
Nine genera of Scincidae occur in South Africa. The large genus 
Mabuia which though principally African occurs all over the warmer parts 
of the world except Australia, has twelve species in South Africa but 
these do not constitute a peculiar group or groups : striata, varia , and 
quinquetaeniata are tropical forms which descend southwards as far as 
eastern Cape Colony : stangeri , occidental is, acutilabris, sulcata , and 
peringueyi are western species, none of them extending as far south as the 
southern coastal districts of the Cape Colony and all excepting the last 
mentioned occurring in South Angola : trivittata, apparently occurs 
throughout South Africa with the exception of Natal, Zululand, and 
Rhodesia, and this species belongs to a small section which includes also 
occidentadis and ivensii which are both western species : homcdocephala 
occupies the coastal strip of South Africa, depressa (possibly a synonym of 
homalocephala) is only known from Tette, and gruetzneri from Gerlachs- 
hoop (Transvaal). 
The very large genus Lygosoma, mainly Australian but almost cosmo- 
politan in the tropics except for Madagascar, has only five or six species in 
tropical Africa and but one, sundevalli , extends southwards into tlje sub- 
tropical parts of South Africa, 
