90 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
spot on each scale (the spots arranged in longitudinal lines), and con- 
spicuous pale dorso-lateral bands ; the head with dark-brown reticulations 
or spots, and the throat (rarely also the whole ventral surface of body), 
with brown spots or reticulations ; often a darker brown band, starting 
from the eye on the temples and sides of the neck, sometimes continued 
along the body as a lateral band, and sometimes an ill-defined pale band 
in the neck ; occasionally uniformly pale-brown dorsally and laterally, 
and sometimes with four or five dark longitudinal bands or streaks dorsally. 
* M. striata Pet. 
Thirty-six to thirty-eight scales round the body ; subocular not 
reaching the lip ; three small triangular ear lobules ; dorsals five carinate ; 
sub-digital lamellae three carinate. 
Bronzy-green above, with irregularly scattered black dots, an indistinct 
light dorso-lateral band, no light band on the flanks. 
t M. chimbana Boul. 
9. Head and body very strongly depressed ; thirty-four to thirty- 
eight scales round the body ; subdigital lamellae three carinate ; dorsals 
five carinate; subocular not reaching the lip; two or three very small 
ear lobules ; fronto-nasal about as long as broad. Usuall}? uniformly 
blackish above, and likewise also the ventral surface ; in immature speci- 
mens pale ventrally, and dorsally brown, with six longitudinal black 
bands. M. sulcata Pet. 
Twenty-eight to thirty-two scales round the body ; dorsals three 
carinate ; subocular not reaching the lip ; subdigital lamellae strongly 
unicarinate or almost three carinate ; three or four long lanceolate ear 
lobules ; toes very long. Dark transverse bars on the back ; two light 
lateral bands, the lower commencing below the eye and passing through 
the ear ; a yellowish vertebral band, often indistinct. 
M. acutilabris Pet. 
Lygosoma. 
Limbs short and weak, pendactyl ; body much elongated ; lower 
eyelid scaly ; supranasals present ; prefrontals small ; frontal about as 
long as the fronto-parietals and parietal together, but not broader than 
the supraocular region ; scales smooth or more or less carinate dorsally. 
Brown or rufous above, uniform, or each scale with a blackish dot or 
streak ; the sides sometimes darker, with whitish brown- edged ocelli. 
Lygosoma sundevalii Smith. 
Ablepharus. 
Interparietal shield small ; a single fronto-parietal shield of large 
size ; eye surrounded sometimes incompletely by a circle of granules 
more or less uniform in size ; five fingers and toes. Brown or olive above, 
Uniform or with black spots, forming longitudinal lines ; a pale dorso- 
lateral streak ; lateral surfaces dark. Ablepharus wahlbergi Smith. 
f See also note on M. varla. 
* See note on distribution of this species. 
