170 Dr. A. Giinther on Leptodeira torquata. 



separated the former, referring it to a genus which he calls 

 Heterurus, because the subcaudal plates are said to be partly 

 simple and partly bifid. This, however, must be merely acci- 

 dental in some individual, and an exception, all the specimens 

 which I have examined (and their number is nearly fifty) show- 

 ing invariably all the subcaudals bifid. A character which I 

 should have been glad to admit into the generic diagnosis of 

 Leptodeira was the presence of a posterior grooved tooth ; but this 

 character must now fall to the ground, according to my view, 

 the species which I am about to describe exhibiting the poste- 

 rior tooth smooth, although strong. It is so similar to Lepto- 

 deira annulata that, at the first glance, one might be tempted to 

 pronounce it merely a variety in which the neck, usually of a 

 light brown colour in L. annulata, has become white. The 

 specific difference, however, may be easily proved by a closer 

 examination, when they will appear in the same relation to each 

 other as Coronella l&vis and Coronella cucullata. According 

 to DumeriPs system, the new species would enter the genus 

 Liophis. 



Leptodeira torquata. (Plate X. A.) 



Diagnosis. Anal bifid. Scales in twenty-one rows. Posterior 

 maxillary tooth longest and strongest, and separated from the 

 others by an interspace. Brownish grey, with a vertebral series 

 of brown spots, some of which are confluent into a zigzag band ; 

 neck with a white collar. 



Habitat. Nicaragua; Island of Laguna. The two typical 

 specimens are in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. 



Description. The head is rather broad and depressed, the 

 snout rounded ; the eye is of moderate size, its vertical diameter 

 being about one- third the width between the eyes ; the trunk is 

 rounded, the tail of moderate length, or rather short. The ros- 

 tral reaches to the upper surface of the snout; the anterior 

 frontals are nearly square, and much smaller than the posterior 

 ones, which, broader than long, are bent downwards to the side 

 of the snout ; the vertical is pentagonal, longer than broad, and 

 of somewhat different form in. the two specimens ; the occipitals 

 are rounded posteriorly. Nostril situated between two nasals ; 

 loreal square ; two anterior oculars, the lower of which is small, 

 and intercalated between the third and fourth labial shields; 

 two posterior oculars ; eight upper labials, the fourth and fifth 

 of which enter the orbit. There is one elongate temporal shield 

 in contact with both the oculars ; the other temporals, five in 

 number, are scale-like. The medial lower labial is triangular, and 

 rather small ; nine lower labials, the first of which is in contact 

 with its fellow behind the median shield. There are two pairs 



