190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 





" Hicotea or Scotea is 'turtle' in the Haitian language. 



" Tortuga blanca, white turtle, (is Spanish.) 



" Pochitoque or Puchitoque seems Maya. Pitch is bark, and tok flint. 



" P. Jaguactero. Jaguacte is a palm tree, (a Bactris,) standing in thick 

 groups in low swamps, which are called jaguacteros. 



" P. chato. Chato is Spanish ; means short or upturned nose. 



" Talmame, perhaps Talmeme, (a corruption of Tlameme, a Mexican word,) 

 means ' carriers.' 



" Mohina is Spanish, (anger, sadness,) though I do not see why applied to 

 this turtle." 



Pliocercus d i m i d i a t u s. 



Tail two-fifths the total length, urosteges 120, nearly equal in number to the 

 gastrosteges 127. Scales in seventeen rows, the median scarcely narrowed. 

 Head very distinct, flat, muzzle truncate. Top of rostral shield round, curved 

 back on the upper plane. Internasals very small ; lateral borders of frontal 

 (vertical) nearly parallel, a little shorter than anterior. Occipitals large. 

 Temporals, 1 very narrow, 1 pentagonal, 2. Loreal nearly a rhomb lower 

 than postnasal ; preoculars three, upper not reaching froatal, lower cut from 

 labial. Superior labials nine, fifth and sixth entering orbit: postoculars two, 

 superior in contact with occipital only. Nine inferior labials, sixth largest ; 

 geneials equal. Teeth equal. 



Red, crossed by fourteen black rings on the body, and eight and a part on 

 the tail. These are separated by nearly equal spaces below, and rather nar- 

 rower (3.} scales) above. A black space involves the nape to the tips of the 

 occipital and last upper labial plates and all the last lower, and does not cross 

 the jugulum. The remainder of the head above black, except the anterior 

 part of the frontal and the first second and third superior labial shields. 

 Lower labials bordering anterior geneials, with mental, black. 



From Arriba, Costa Rica. Sent by Chas. N. Riotte, correspondent of the 

 Smithsonian Institute: Mus. No. 6363. 



The species of this genus now known are four, viz. : 



Two pra oculars ; dentition isodont ; scutella near 143-)-85. Color of Elaps 

 lemniscatus type, red with black wings in threes separated by yellow. 

 P. elapoides m. Elapochrus deppei Pet. Liophis (Cosmiosophis) tricinc- 



tus Jan. 



One preocular; dentition diacranterian ; scutella near 130-f97. Color of 

 the E. corallinus type, red with simple numerous black rings. 

 P aequalis Salvin. P. Z. S., 1863. 



Three prseoculars ; dentition isodont; scutella 129+120; color of the E. 

 type, few approximated black rings on red ground. 

 P. dimidiatus m. 



Two prseoculars ; dentition isodont ; scutella near 138+46. Color of the E. 

 langsdorflii type ; broad contiguous equal black rings, leaving but lines of the 

 red ground. 

 P. euryzonus m. Liophis {Cosmioaojilih) splendens Jan. Coronellida? 



Arch. p. 1. Zoologia Modena, 1863. 



Tropidoclonium storerioides. 



. Size small, form not slender, muzzle obtuse ; in general similar to Storeria 

 d e k a y i. Scales fifteen rows ; the inferior row only smooth, much broader 

 than the others, which are narrowest medially. Scales of tail strongly 

 keeled, in six rows. Nasals not elongate, usually entirely, sometimes half 

 separated. Loreal trapezoidal touching the decurved postfrontals by the supe- 

 rior angle only, its hinder suture shortest, sometimes entering the orbit pos- 

 teriorly between the two preoculars ; of the latter, the inferior is the smaller. 

 Postoculars three ; in contact with one broad temporal, which separates two 



[Oct. 



