Discoveries in Australia Volume I Part 44

Inhabits West Australia.

The Netted Grammatoph.o.r.e. Grammatophora reticulata.

Grammatophora decresii, Gray, Grey's Trav. Austr. 2, not Dum. et Bib.

Black, yellow-spotted and varied, beneath grey, vermiclated with blackish; tail black-ringed; back and nape with a central series of larger keeled scales, with distant cross series of similar scales; sides of the nape and parotids with series of rather larger keeled scales; scales of the back small, subequal; tail tapering, with regular nearly equal keeled scales, and 1 or 2 cross bands of larger scales at the base.

Inhabits West Australia.

The Yellow-spotted Grammatoph.o.r.e. Grammatophora ornata.

Black; the back with a series of large yellow spots, smaller on the sides; the tail and limbs yellow-banded, beneath yellow; the throat black-dotted; chest blackish; nape with a slight scaly crest; ears with a few tubercular scales in front; neck with 3 or 4 groups of short tubercular scales on each side; the scales small, ovate, imbricate, keeled, of the middle of the back rather larger, and with a few rather larger (white) ones scattered on the sides; nostril near the front edge of the orbit.

Inhabits West Australia.

Family HYBRIDAE.

Stokes' Sea Serpent. Hydrus stokesii.

REPTILES. PLATE 3.

Grey; white beneath; scales of the back, broad, ovate, cordate, keeled; of the sides larger, and of the belly largest, all keeled; of the two central series of the belly rather larger, more acute and smooth. l.a.b.i.al s.h.i.+elds, 5, 1, 5, high band-like; the 4 and 5 the highest. 1, cheek scale; 1, anterior, and 3, posterior ocular, the lower hinder largest; the hinder l.a.b.i.al s.h.i.+elds behind the eye small, the hinder one smallest.

Inhabits Australian Seas.

This species is the giant of the genus, being very many times larger than the Hydrus major of Shaw (Pelamis shawi, Messem.) from the coast of India. The body is as thick as a man's thigh, and it must have been a most powerful and dangerous enemy to any person in the water.

GONIONOTUS, Gray.

Head ovate, depressed, covered with small rather acute scales, with 2 small frontal plates just over the rostral in front; rostral small, triangular, concave in the centre. Nostrils large, rather anterior, in the middle of a rather large plate, with a slight slit to the hinder edge; l.a.b.i.al scales rather larger; the lower ones with a concavity in the middle of each scale. Eyes convex, rather large, pupil oblong; throat with small acute scales. Body elongate, compressed, subpentangular; back covered with very small semicircular scales, with a row of larger ovate keeled scales on each side, and 2 or 3 rows of similar larger keeled scales over the vertebral line; the sides covered with moderate ovate keeled scales, rather larger beneath the belly, covered with a series of transverse rounded plates. Tail elongate, rather compressed, subpentangular, tapering, like the back above, and with a single series of rounded transverse plates beneath.

Gonionotus plumbeus.

REPTILES. PLATE 4.

Bluish-grey, belly and beneath white. Length of body 9, of tail 4, total 13 inches.

Inhabits --

This animal is at once known from all the other Homalopsina, by the three keels on the back, by having only a single series of plates beneath, and in the lower l.a.b.i.al s.h.i.+elds being pitted.

Family CROCODILIDAE.

The MUGGAR or GOA.

Crocodilus pal.u.s.tris, Lesson Belanger, Vog. 305. Gray Cat. Reptiles British Museum 62. Crocodilus vulgaris, Dum. and Bibr. Erp. Gen. n. 108.

Crocodilus biporcatus, Cuv. Oss. Foss. tome 5 plate 1, figure 4. Skull.

Crocodilus biporcatus raninus, Muller.

Inhabits Victoria River.

Captain Stokes has furnished me with the following note on this species.

"Length in feet inches: of Alligator: 15 0.

From base of head to extremity of nose: 2 2.

Across the base of head: 2 0.

Iength of lower jaw: 2 0.

Teeth in both jaws vary in size, and are variously disposed, as will be seen in the sketch.

In upper jaw on each side of maxillary bone: 18 2 incisors.

In lower jaw on each side of maxillary bone: 15 2 incisors.

The largest teeth are 1 1/2 inch in length. The two lower incisors are stronger and longer than the upper, and project through two holes in front part of upper jaw. Breadth across the animal from extreme of one fore foot, across the shoulders, to the other side, 5 feet 2 inches. The fore feet have each five perfect toes, the three inner or first, have long h.o.r.n.y nails, slightly curved, the two outer toes have no nails, nor are they webbed. The third and fourth toes are deeply webbed, allowing a wide s.p.a.ce between them, which is apparent, even in their pa.s.sive state.

The hind feet are twice the size and breadth of the fore, with four long toes, the two first are webbed as far as the first joint, and the other are strongly webbed to the apex of last joint; the last or outer toe has no nail. From the apex of tail, a central highly notched ridge runs up about midway of it, and there splitting into two branches, pa.s.ses up on each side of the spine over the back, as far up as the shoulders, gradually diminis.h.i.+ng in height to the termination. A central ridge runs down from the nape of the neck, over the spinous processes of the vertebrae (being firmly attached to them by strong ligaments) as far down as the sacrum, diminis.h.i.+ng to its termination likewise."

The eggs are oblong, 3 inches and 3 lines long, and 2 inches 8 lines in diameter.

The skull of this specimen, which was presented to the British Museum by Captain Stokes, has exactly the same form and proportions as that of the crocodiles called Goa and Muggar on the Indian continent, and is quite distinct in the characters from the Egyptian species.

A number of large stones, about the size (the largest) of a man's fist, were found in the stomach.

Messrs. Dumeril and Bibron deny that any species of crocodile is found in Australia. See Erpet. Gen. 1 1836, 45.

APPENDIX.

DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW OR UNFIGURED SPECIES OF COLEOPTERA FROM AUSTRALIA.

BY ADAM WHITE, M.E.S. a.s.sISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM.

Megacephala australasiae, Hope, Proceedings of the Entomological Society, November 1, 1841, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 9, 425.

STOKES, INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 1.

Habitat: North-West Australia.

Aenigma cyanipenne, Hope; variety with the whole of the thorax punctulated.

INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 2.

The specimen figured, in other respects seems to me to agree with the species above-mentioned, described briefly by the Reverend F. Hope in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society for November 1, 1841.