432 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



with which our species agrees best, in scale fornuihi, has the rostral 

 ''as deep as broad," and only one pair of chin-shields, while ours has 

 the rostral much broader than high and the second pair of chin-shields 

 well developed. In D. ornata this feature is apparently not so 

 marked, for Boulenger speaks of the ''posterior chin-shields, if dis- 

 tinct, separated by two or three scales." In D. cyanocincta the rostral 

 is but "slightly broader than deep," and the scales "subinibricate,"'* 

 while in our specimens the difference between breadth and depth of 

 the rostral is considerable and the scales can not be termed subim- 

 bricate on the posterior part of the body at least. I do not know 

 whether the size of the terminal scale of the tail is of any consequence. 

 Boulenger does not mention it in his descriptions, but in Jan's figure ^ 

 which Boulenger cites under D. ornata it is ([uite large, while in our 

 specimens no such enlarged terminal scale is differentiated. Peters 

 expressly mentions that in D. godeffroyi the terminal tail scales are 

 small. 



I may add that our specimens agree on the whole very well with 

 Peters's figures, except that the first supralabial is considerably higher 



353 



Figs. 352-35-1.— Disteira godeffroyi. IJ x nat. size. 352, top of head; 353, side of head; 354, 



UNDERSIDE OF HEAD. No. 33933, U.S.N .M. 



than shown in his fig. 3. The anal shield, or scales (fig. ?>d), agree 

 exactly with the arrangement in our female (No. 33933), while in the 

 three males there are four rows of small scales between the lateral 

 large scutes instead of two. This arrangement of the preanals, 

 together with the greater relative shortness of the body, seems to 

 h? among the best characters of this species. 



DescrijJtion. — Adult female; U.S.N.M. No. 33933; Ishigaki shima, 

 Yaeyama group, Riu Kiu archipelago; April to May, 1899; A. Owston 

 collection (figs. 352-354). Kostral much broader than high, well 

 visible from above; nasals long, with the crescentic valvular nostril 

 close to the posterior edge ; internasal suture as long as interi)arietal 

 suture and three times as long as the one between the prefrontals; 



a "Scales all imbricate" in key, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., Ill, 1896, p. 287. 

 ''Icon. Ophid., livr. 40, pi. vi, fig. 1. 



