286 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



TOl.. 53. 



Measurements of Leimadophis andreae. 



ARRHYTON TAENIATUM GUnther. 



Figs. 108 to 115. 



A specimen (No. 29768 U.S.N.M.) was collected by Bowdish at 

 Guamd, on January 7, 1902, "in top soil near hospital/' which I 

 refer to this species for the present, at least. It agrees in every 

 respect with No. 29769 which was collected by Doctor Wright, and 

 therefore probably in eastern Cuba. Both differ from the types of 

 A. taeniatum and A. fulvum in having the preocular so reduced in 

 size as to allow the prefrontals to enter the orbit in the interval 

 between supraocular and preocular, as shown in figure 114, while in 

 the types mentioned the supraocular is broadly m contact with the 

 preocular.* There are also some other slight differences in the shape 

 of the snout and the stripes on the body, but in most other respects 

 they are so ahke that a specific separation does not seem warranted. 



The material available in museums is too Umited to allow of any 

 but tentative conclusions as to the status of the species described in 

 this genus, yet thus far the specimens recorded since Boulenger's 

 treatment of it in the second volume of the Catalogue of Snakes in 

 British Museum (1894) bear out the conclusions there set forth. 

 An analysis of the scale formulas of six specimens of A. taeniatum, 

 and seven of A. vittatum (figs. 116 to 119) seems to indicate that the 

 species are not unusually variable. We have here clearly two 

 species — A. taeniatum characterized by the absence of a loreal (loreal 



> See fig. no and Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., vol. 2, pi. 12, fig. 2. 



