DELMA GRAYII.
ring of minute scales. Tongue flat, coated with minute granular papillae, and
slightly bifid at the apex. External ear-opening small, suboyate, and in a
line with the angle of the mouth. Scales of the body and tail imbricate,
those of the former rounded posteriorly, and arranged in oblique rows, fourteen
in each row, those of the latter somewhat six sided, and not arranged in
distinct rows; scales of throat small and six sided. Plates of the belly larger
than the scales of the back, and six sided ; those of the under surface of the
tail nearly the same, and much larger than the scales of the upper surface.
Anterior extremities wanting; posterior extremities rudimentary, short, compressed,
placed close to the body on each side of the anus, and externally
coated with small scales, the apex narrow, and formed of two small scales.
Length from nose to base of tail, 3 inches 9 lines; length of tail, 10 inches ;
length of hinder extremities a line and a quarter; circumference at the
thickest part of the body, 8 lines.
This reptile was given to me as an inhabitant of the interior of Southern Africa, but
whether it is so or not I cannot pretend to decide, as I never obtained a specimen in any
part of the country over which I travelled. The only other species of the group yet known,
the type of the genus Delma of Mr. Gray,* is known to be a native of Western Australia,
therefore it is probable the present is also from that country.- Though such is my suspicion,-
I know no valid reason why species o f this group should not be expected to exist in both
countries, the more especially as we know that not only species of the same group are found
in both, hut that, in one instance at least, the self-same species (Phyllodactylus porphoreus,
Dum. $• Bib.) is found abundantly both in New Holland and in Southern Africa.
* Gray's Travels in Australia, vol. ii. p. 427, plate 4, fig. 3.