THE following paper contains an account of some observations on the early stages in the development of Lacer ta mural is , begun during the summer of this year at the zoological station at Naples and completed in the morphological laboratory at Cambridge. It relates chiefly to the mode of formation of the germinal layers and to the early development of the kidney. On my return from Naples I fou...

The distribution of the lizard Lacerta schreiberi is likely to have been severely affected by the climatic cycles that have influenced the Iberian Peninsula. Information about the species ecology and Iberian physiogeography was used to generate specific hypotheses about episodes of colonization and subsequent population persistence. These hypotheses generated predictions about the distribution ...

The diet of the arboreal lizard E. bilineatus was assessed based on analysis of gut contents of specimens collected in the remnants of the Atlantic rainforest in Espírito Santo State, south-eastern Brazil. Stomachs of the lizards examined (SVL = 57.0-85.0 mm) contained nine arthropod orders. E. bilineatus utilizes a broad range of arthopodan prey type and sizes, and can be considered an arthrop...

In Europe, spirochetes within the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex are transmitted by Ixodes ricinus ticks. Specific associations are described between reservoir hosts and individual genospecies. We focused on green lizard (Lacerta viridis) as a host for ticks and potential host for borreliae. In 2004 and 2005, a total of 146 green lizards infested by ticks were captured, and 469 I. rici...

The family Lacertidae encompasses more than 250 species distributed in the Palearctis, Ethiopis and Orientalis. Lacertids have been subjected in the past to several morphological and molecular studies to establish their phylogeny. However, the problems of convergent adaptation in morphology and of excessively variable molecular markers have hampered the establishment of well supported deeper ph...