Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1919 — Lizards With Beautifully Marked Wings, Resembling Species of the Butterfly [ARTICLE]

Lizards With Beautifully Marked Wings, Resembling Species of the Butterfly

At least one lizard enjoys, to a certain degree, the power of sailing through the .air, as in the cases of flying squirrels, flying frogs of Borneo and some other animals. These lizards are called flying dragons, and they are all small-sized forms found in JJtUL-Ilh do-Maiayfin region.—■—They possess elongated ribs in mid series, some five to seven pairs of them; these ribs support, on either side of the body, a semi-transparent membrane, it being stretched over them both dorsally and yentraliy, united at the free margins and continuous with the general integument of the. body. These “wings,” so called, close up like a fan when not in use and fall to the sides of the animal, but when spread form a parachute of marked effectiveness, as by its use this lizard can leap from the limb of a tree find sail to another one at certain distances as well as a phalanger or a flying lemur. Sometimes these “wings” in certain species of the flying dragons are beautifully marked, resembling the wing markings of some buttfirflies.