SOUTH AMERICAN SNAKES IN THE COLLECTION OF THE 

 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



By Afkanio do Amaral 



Of the Instituto do Butantan and Museu Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil 



During the course of a study whicli I have undertaken on the col- 

 lection of South American snakes contained in the United States 

 National Museum, I found several new forms that I have already 

 described elsewhere ^ and a great many other species which are so 

 interesting as to deserve a detailed description of their character- 

 istics. 



The examination of that collection has led me also to review a few 

 important and complicated questions in systematics such as that con- 

 cerning the real status of the two species of Elapidae, Micrurus coraX- 

 linus (Wied, 1820) and M. lemniscatus (Linnaeus, 1758), as well as. 

 that of the species of Colubridae Dipsadinae Sihynomor'pTius mikanii 

 (Schlegel, 1837). 



In discussing the different specimens I shall confine myself to those 

 characteristics which I have found to be different either from those of 

 the type or from those ascribed to them by Boulenger in his " Cata- 

 logue of the Snakes in the British Museum." 



I ^\^sh to express my gratitude to Dr. L. Stejneger for liaving per- 

 mitted me to study the collection and also to Miss D. Cochran for 

 placing every available facility at my disposal, as well as to Dr. 

 Thomas Barbour for providing the opportunity of examining com- 

 paratively the collection of vSouth American snakes in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology. 



1. HELMINTHOPHIS BONDENSIS Griffin 



Helminihophis bondensis Griffin, Mem. Carnegie Mus., vol. 7, 1915, p. 165. 



Colombia. — 1 specimen, No. 61,675. 



Panama.— 3 specimens, Nos. 37009, 60517, and 61989. 



2. EPICRATES CRASSUS Cope 



Epicrates crassus Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1862, p. 349.- — • 

 Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., vol. 3, 1896, p. 593. 



Brazil. — 1 specimen, type. No. 12413, from Parana River. 



' Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 14, no. 9, 1924, pp. 200-202. 



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No. 2596.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 67, Art. 24. 



53649— 25t 1 



