31. Chap. 31. (26.)-The Stellio.

CHAP. 31. (26.)—THE STELLIO.

The stellio[1] has in some measure the same nature as the chameleon, as it lives upon nothing but dew, and such spiders[2] as it may happen to find.

1. The stellio of the Romans is the " ascalabos" or "ascalabotes" of the Greeks, the lizard into which Ascalabus was changed by Ceres: see Ovid, Met. B. v. 1. 450, et seq. Pliny also mentions this in B. xxix. c. 4, though he speaks of some difference in their appearance. It is a species of gecko, the tarentola of Italy, the tarente of Provence, and the geckotta, probably, of Lacepède. The gecko, Cuvier says, is not venomous; but it causes small blisters to rise on the skin when it walks over it, the result, probably, of the extreme sharpness of its nails.

2. See c. 28 of this Book, and B. viii. c. 95; B. xxx. c. 27.