EREMLAS CAPENSIS.
on its surface near its centre; occipital plate hemispherical, the convexity
forwards; parietal plates indistinctly five sided, the sides very unequal in
length, and the two forming the outline anteriorly meet in front at an acute
angle; palpebral plates in some specimens almost completely surrounded with
small granular scales; freno-nasal plate oblong and quadrangular; freno-ocular
irregularly triangular, the anterior angle truncated ; lower eyelid externally
covered with small semi-pellucid plates, vide Plate XLVIII. Figs. 7 and 7a ;
upper lip anterior to large suborbital plate with seven plates, behind it five,
small and scale-like; of lower lip eight or nine besides the chin plate. Earopening
large, vertically subovate, and its edges even and covered with small
granular scales. Scales of back and upper part of sides small, subcircular,
regularly arranged in transverse rows, and the rows separated from each
other by the invervention of minute granular scales ; the under surface' of the
neck coated with small flat subovate scales, imbricate, and arranged in irregular
transverse rows ; hinder edge of antepectoral fold formed of eight
quadrangular plates, the two middle ones the largest; pectoral and ventral
plates quadrangular in transverse rows, sixteen plates in the longest ventral
row; preanal plates in several transverse rows, two in the hindermost row,
and about five in each of the two in front of it; femoral pores nine to eleven,
their openings small, directed outwards and backwards ; scales of upper and
lateral parts of tail carinated; plates of under parts of tail short and
quadrangular. The fore legs towards body covered anteriorly with a row of
large plates, elsewhere with small subtriangular flat imbricate scales ; hinder
legs anteriorly towards body, and inferiorly towards toes, with plates, elsewhere
with small scales. When the anterior extremities are extended along
the side of the neck, the longest toe reaches to about a line beyond the point
of the nose; and when the hinder are laid along the sides, the longest toe
reaches exactly to the opening of the ear.
Length from point of nose to vent 2 inches 3 lines; length of the tail 4 inches 9 lines.
Inhabits the arid Karoo flats within the Cape Colony, as well as those of the districts* immediately
beyond it. It is very agile, extremely watchful, and, when frightened, conceals itself
under loose stones, decayed wood, or any other material beneath which it can creep. This
species is readily to be distinguished from JSremias JBurchellii, by its having the interstices
between the rows of the larger scales of the back studded with minute granular scales; by the
nasal plates having the anterior extremity of the naso-rostral introduced between them, and by
the palpebral plates being, to a greater extent, encircled by small granular scales. The plates
of the lower eyelid are also much less numerous, and, instead of being irregularly scattered, are
arranged in two longitudinal rows.