Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 4: ZoologyLinnean Society of London
Science
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 4: Zoology
Linnean Society of London
Zoology -- Periodicals
The sixteenth row differs from its predecessors and successors, and may
be termed the axillary row. It is bent upon itself with an angle open
forwards, and is divided into two halves (each of which contains seven
scutes) by the union of the middle scutes of the fifteenth subcervical
with those of the first row of what may be termed the subdorsal scutes,
or those which lie under the thorax and abdomen. Of subdorsal and
subcaudal scutes there are, up to the broken-off end of the tail,
thirty-seven rows, with the following numbers of scutes:--
Rows. Scutes.
1 12
2 10
3, 4, 5, 12
6, 7, 8, 9, 14
10 16
11 14
12-17 14
18-20 12
21 14
22 18
23 22
24 22
25 20
26-28 18
29-31 16
32-34 14
35 12
36, 37 10
It will be noticed that there are three more rows of ventral than of
dorsal scutes. On endeavouring to ascertain how this came about, I
observed that the first subdorsal was a good deal behind the first
dorsal row, though the eighth to the twelfth dorsal corresponded exactly
with the eighth to the twelfth ventral rows. In the anterior part of the
body, therefore, there is a clear general correspondence between the
segments of the dorsal and those of the ventral armour.
In the caudal region, again, I found that the twenty-fourth ventral
row, which is the first of the caudal rows not excavated by the vent,
corresponded exactly with the twenty-first dorsal row. It was clear,
therefore, that three ventral rows wore interpolated somewhere between
the twelfth and twenty-first dorsal rows; and on close examination I
found this interpolation to arise from the doubling of the fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth ventral rows.
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