258 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



vertical, except its anterior border, and the occipitals within a line drawn 

 diagonally from the posterior termination of their suture to the lower post- 

 ocular, are black. A spot below the eye, one on the chin, and the posterior 

 borders of most of the other plates of the head are black. 

 One sp. Panama. Dr. John L. Le Conte. 



131. L. poly zona nobis. Size larger than the three preceding species, 

 body firmly cylindrical ; scales large, lanceolate, in twenty-one or twenty-three 

 rows. Head scarcely distinct. Greatest length of vertical plate a little greater 

 than breadth, which latter is a little greater than length of occipital suture. 

 Rostral large, full, postfrontals large, occipitals more elongate than in m i c r o- 

 pbolis. One pre- two postoculars, loreal longer than high; upper labials 

 seven, eye over the third and fourth, first in contact with loreal.* Inferior 

 labials nine. 



Gastrosteges (1) 214, (2) 215; an anal; urosteges (1) 49, (2)41. Total 

 length (1) 3 ft. 5 in., (2) 3 ft. 3 in. 6 1. ; tail (1) 6 in. (2) 5 in. 9 1. 



The ground color above and below is bright red ; the scales are largely 

 tipped with black. In specimen No. 1 there are twenty-seven pairs of black 

 rings on the body and tail. In a few instances the double rings become con- 

 fluent, forming an elongate annular spot. The gastrosteges are irregularly 

 spotted with black, and are almost entirely of that color where the rings cross 

 the belly. Specimen No. 2, which we take to be more typical, is ornamented 

 with twenty-eight pairs of rings only three or four scales apart, and perfect on 

 the belly. In both the pairs include a space but one and a half scales wide, of 

 a pale reddish above, more yellow below. A black collar involves the tips of 

 the occipitals and the last superior labial. In front of this a yellow band 

 crosses the occipitals. The rest of the head is black, a few scales with pale 

 borders, which hue predominates on the chin.f 

 (2) one sp. Quatupe, near Jalapa, Mex. Mr. Pease. 



(1) " Jalapa. Jno. Cassin, (De Oca coll.) 



Var. A. Scales in the rings of the ground color without black tips. Nine- 

 teen pairs of rings on the body. 



One sp. Mexico. Mr. Keating. 



The var. C of Coronella doliata, in Brit. Mus. Catalogue, p. 42, may belong 

 to this species. 



Erythrolamprus Boie. Type E. venustissimus, 



Isis von Oken 1826, p. 981. 



* This may not be a constant character; in do! i ata it occurs occasionally, but not at 

 all in our specimens of co cc in e a, _ 



t In another specimen of this species, taken in the hills west of Vera Cruz by Dr. fear- 

 torius, and sent to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, there are 13 rows ot scales, 

 and twenty pairs of black rings not separated the width of one scale. 



Another specimen in the Museum Smiths. Inst, resembles our var. A-having the scales 

 in twenty one rows without black tips, and twenty-one pairs of black rings on the body. 

 It differs from it in having no yellow marking whatever upon it, and in the black rings 

 being but one scale and a half wide instead of three, and in the smaller size. 1 he first 

 black ring does not touch the occipital plates, in this resembling the c o c ci n e a, which 

 differs in having nineteen rows of scales, and yellow rings. The head and plates are 

 broad and short, the scales as in do li at a, and more lanceolate than inannulata 

 Kenn. Though loth to add another to the already difficult series of red Lampropeltes, 

 the more we have thought of it the more are we impressed with the belief that this is 

 deserving of recognition as a species. Unite it with any species with which we are ac- 

 quainted, and the characters which distinguish all the species in the series from trian- 

 gula to micropholisare invalidated. We propose that it be called L. a m a u r a. 

 Locality unknown. . . * . 



For the opportunity of examining and describing these and other specimens noticed in 

 this paper, in the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institute Washington, we are 

 indebted to the liberality of its distinguished officers Profs. Henry and Baud. 



[June, 



