VOL. XV, PP. 15-17 FEBRUARY 18, 1902 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THB 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW OPISTHOGLYPH SNAKE FROM FORMOSA. 



BY LEONHARD STEJNEGER. 



During a recent visit to the Naturhistorische Museum in Ham 

 burg, the authorities kindly allowed me to examine and de 

 scribe two specimens of an apparently new opisthoglyph snake 

 collected by Dr. Warburg in Formosa. I am greatly indebted 

 to Dr. Krsepelin, the Director, and to Dr. Pfeffer, the Curator, 

 for permission to make the notes upon which the following 

 description is based, as well as to Dr. Steinhaus, the assistant 

 at the Museum, for kindly helping me in various ways. 



The snake in question belongs to the genus characterized by 

 Boulenger (Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. Ill, p. 59, 1896,) under the 

 name of Dipsadomorphus (Fitzinger, 1845). 



This name is clearly antedated by Fitzinger' s Boiga of 1826. 

 The latter is a composite genus it is true, and Boulenger there 

 fore quotes it in the synonymy of Dipsadomorphus as "B.oiga, 

 part., Fitzing.", but on page 31 (Neue Classif. Rept.) Fitzinger 

 expressly states that the genus Boiga is based upon "Merrem's 

 Coluber irregularis." This species, therefore, is the type of 

 Boiga, a name which cannot be ignored simply because its own 

 author dropped it 17 years after on account of its barbaric 

 origin. 



8 BIOL. Soc. WASH. VOL. XV, 1903. (15) 



