SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 185 



REPTILIA: SERPENTES. 



Key to the Genera. 



a' Under side of body with small scales like the back Typhlops, p. 185 



a- Under side of body with transverse plates. 

 b' Plates beneath tail undivided. 



c' Anterior maxillary teeth greatly enlarged Epicrates, p. 186 



c- Anterior maxillary teeth not greatly elongate Tropidophis, p. 188 



b- Plates beneath tail in two series. 



c' No.strils directed upward Tretanorhinus, p. 192 



0^ Nostrils lateral 



d' Scales with two apical pits Alsophis, p. 194 



d^ Scales with none or only one apical pit. 



e' Eye very small, scaled always without apical pits . . . Arrhyton, p. 197 

 e^ Eye larger, scales often with a single apical pit Leimadophis, p. 195 



Typhlopidae. 



54. Typhlops ltjmbricalis (Linne). 



Plate 11, fig. 4, 5. 



Culebrita ciega; Vibora. 



Diagnosis: — A small burrowing snake (not to be confused with the 

 Cuberita ciega, amphisbaenid lizards), \vith smooth nearly cylindrical body, 

 covered with rounded imbricate scales almost alike above and below; the eye 

 is hidden under a large shield but may show through as a black spot ; it is often 

 quite invisible. 



Description: — Adult M. C. Z. 10,855. Cuba: Havana Province; San 

 Antonio de los Bafios, March, 1915. Thomas Barbom-. 



Head depressed, snout projecting, rounded on the sides; nostrils just 

 below the lateral edge; rostral between two and three sevenths of width of the 

 head; nostril over the second supralabial suture; ocular with but slightly 

 convex anterior edge, in contact with third and fourth supralabials ; supra- 

 ocular, prefrontal, frontal, postoculars, and parietals scale-hke and subequal; 

 eye visible; twenty rows of scales around the body; about 367 scales on the 

 midventral line from chin to vent, twelve scales on lower middle Une of tail; 

 tail ending in a spine. 



Colour (in Ufe) : — Dark gray-brown, each dorsal scale with a darker basal 

 spot, scales of sides Ughter unspotted. Lower surfaces yellowish white. 



