. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology. 152 GOWER AND M. WILKINSON among individuals, but whether this variation is correlated with taxonomy, ontogeny, and/or temporally within any possible repro- ductive cycles is as yet unknown. Occasionally, minor variations in the ornamentation are seen. For example, the individual shown in Fig. 4 also has a single, poorly formed, transverse thickening ventrally. In the individual shown in Fig. 6, the posteriormost transverse thickening on the right dorsolateral longitudinal ridge extends posterior to the posteriormost transverse thickening
. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology. 152 GOWER AND M. WILKINSON among individuals, but whether this variation is correlated with taxonomy, ontogeny, and/or temporally within any possible repro- ductive cycles is as yet unknown. Occasionally, minor variations in the ornamentation are seen. For example, the individual shown in Fig. 4 also has a single, poorly formed, transverse thickening ventrally. In the individual shown in Fig. 6, the posteriormost transverse thickening on the right dorsolateral longitudinal ridge extends posterior to the posteriormost transverse thickening on the mid-dorsal longitudinal ridge, whereas the reverse of this pattern (as seen on the left of this individual) is more commonly encountered. Finally, the transverse thickenings or tuberosities are sometimes multipartite. Figure 9 depicts the phallodeum of an individual identified as U. cf. oxyurus (Dumeril and Bibron, 1841). Although the precise specific identity of this individual also is not entirely clear, we are confident that it is referable to a species distinct from that (or those) represented in Figs. 4 to 8. For example, the U. cf. oxyurus indi- vidual comes from a population with substantially more vertebrae (112-115, n = 18) than the populations represented by the other figured specimens (93-110, n > 100). Despite their apparent specific distinctness, the phallodea of U. cf. narayani (Figs. 4 to 8) and U. cf. oxyurus (Fig. 9) share the same number and pattern of longitudinal ridges and transverse ornamentation. Thus Wake's (1972: 353) claim that the phallodeal ridges and 'cloacal accessory structures is species-specific' does not appear to hold - at least not at the level of the presence, number, or topographical relations of major features. It might yet hold for morphometric variations of phallodeal features and/or for fine morphological details of the longitudinal ridges and their ornamentation, but this needs further assessment. That not all species of Urae
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