338 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Liopeltis is almost coextensive with Boiilenger's Ahlahes (part 

 of Ahlabes Dumeril and Bibron, 1854) for which he selected ^1. 

 haliodeirus as the type { = Gongylosoma Fitzinger, 1843), with the 

 exception of the latter species, which Cope says has hypapophyses 

 present throughout the vertebral column. The species are very 

 difficult to distinguish generically from Elaphe, the chief character 

 being the absence of apical pits to the dorsal scales. These are 

 very obscure in some of the Elaplie, for instance E. rufodorsata, 

 and can only be discovered by a very carefid examination of the 

 dry scale. This latter species, therefore, has been referred repeat- 

 edly to the genus here treated of. 



This genus is mostly oriental in its distribution, extending in the 

 west to the Himalayas and in the south to the Malayan Islands. 

 In China it does not reach farther north than Shanghai and is also 

 unknown in Japan proper. The Chinese species extends, however, 

 to Formosa, and there are two species apparently peculiar to the 

 Riukius. 



KEY TO THE RIUKIU AND J^ORMOSA SPECIES OF LIOPELTIS. 



a^ Scale rows 15. 



6'. Posterior chin-shields much shorter than the anterior L. major, p. 338. 



6^. Posterior and anterior chin-shields subeciual L. scmicarinata, p. 340. 



or. Scale rows 17 L. hcrviinse p. 343. 



LIOPELTIS MAJOR « (Guenther). 



1858. Cydophis major Guenther, Cat. Colubr. Snakes Brit. Mus., p. 120 (type- 

 locality, near Ningpo, China; type in Brit. Mus.); Rept. Brit. India, 1864, 

 p. 230 (Ningpo; Hongkong) pi. xvii, fig. L; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), 1, 

 1888, p. 170 (near Kiukiang, China). — Ahlabes major Boettger, Ber. 

 Senckenberg. Naturf. Ges., 1894, p. 140 (Lueshan Mts., Kiukiang). — 

 Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 279 (eastern China; 

 Formosa); Proc. Zool. Soc. London., 1899, p. 165 (Prov. of Fokien). — 

 Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1903, p. 93 (Hongkong; Formosa). 



1860. Herpetodryas chloris Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 503 (type- 

 locality, Hongkong; type, U.S.N.M. No. 7335; Brooke, collector). 



Description. — Half grown male; U.S.N.M. No. 7335; type of Her- 

 petodryas chloris Hallowell; Hongkong Island, China; Ma}^, 1854; 

 Mr. Brooke, collector (figs. 287-289). Rostral somewhat broader 

 than high, visible from above; internasals very small, much smaller 

 than prefrontals, which are broadly in contact with supraocular; 

 frontal much longer than its distance from tip of snout, equalling the 

 interparietal suture, slightly wider in front than behind, wider than 

 supraoculars; parietals long, twice as long as the frontal's distance 

 from rostral, followed by two enlarged scales or scutes, which are 

 larger than internasals; nostril large, oval, in the anterior portion of 

 an elongated nasal; loreal much longer than high, about the same 



a Signifying larger; rather large. 



