. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology. 70 ARNOLD there may have been an increase in male counts. In several ground dwellers in dense vegetation, females have on average two more presacral vertebrae than males. Included here are thePsammodromus hispanicus group, Lacerta agilis, L. derjugini, L. praticolal and Adolfus alleni. Number of abdominal vertebrae appears also to be influenced by relative clutch mass (Bauwens, Barbadillo & Gonzalez, 1997). Relative tail length Because caudal autotomy and partial regeneration are frequent, adequate data on the relative length of intact
. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology. 70 ARNOLD there may have been an increase in male counts. In several ground dwellers in dense vegetation, females have on average two more presacral vertebrae than males. Included here are thePsammodromus hispanicus group, Lacerta agilis, L. derjugini, L. praticolal and Adolfus alleni. Number of abdominal vertebrae appears also to be influenced by relative clutch mass (Bauwens, Barbadillo & Gonzalez, 1997). Relative tail length Because caudal autotomy and partial regeneration are frequent, adequate data on the relative length of intact tails in adultlacertids are not easy to collect. In most adult lacertids, intact tails vary in length from about to about times the length of the head and body. However, they are often over three times as long in many Takydromus, Psammodromus algirus, Gastropholis, Philochortus neumanni and P. hardeggeri, Latastia longicaudata, Pseuderemias mucronata and P. striata. The longest tails occur in Takydromus sauteri, where they may be four times as long as the head and body, and in some T. sexlineatus, where the tail is five times as long. Tails are particularly short, being around to times the head plus body length, in Holaspis, Eremias argus, E. przewalskii, E. quadrifrons, Acantho- dactylus tristrami, A. robustus and Mesalina rubropunctata. In Meroles anchietae and Eremias arguta the figure falls to about 1. Very long and very short tails are both derived conditions within the Lacertidae that have arisen several times. Very long tails are frequent in forms that climb in vegetation matrixes, such as Takydromus, Gastropholis, Psammodromus algirus and perhaps the species of Philochortus mentioned. In at least the first two genera, the tail is used to maintain position among stems and twigs (Arnold, 1989b, 1997) and, in general, appears to spread weight in flimsy vegetation. This occurs in some Takydromus, such as T. sexlineatus, when they run across the top of high
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