HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN". 353 



fourth and fifth entering the eye; five lower labials in contact with 

 the anterior chin-shields, which are shorter than the posterior; scales 

 in 16 rows, the two median strongly keeled; a second dorsal pair 

 may be feebly keeled; ventrals 187-194; anal divided; subcaudals 

 108-116. Color, anterior half of body olive above, with black edges 

 to the scales and a yellow or orange, black-edged vertebral stripe; 

 upper lip and belly yellow, the olive of the upper parts extending 

 down to the ends of the ventrals; on the posterior part of the body 

 the upper surfaces turn to black and the lower to dark olive or gray. 



Dimensions. mm. 



Total length 1, 950 



Snout to vent 1, 420 



Vent to tip of tail 530 



Variation. — Doctor Werner has counted as many as 120 subcau- 

 dals in a Ningpo specimen and Doctor Wall as few as 96 ; the latter 

 also gives 199 as maximum of ventrals observed by him. He also 

 notes the following variations: Loreal, in one specimen two super- 

 posed shields on one side; temporals, a single anterior in one speci- 

 men on one side; anterior chin-shields in contact with four lower 

 labials on both sides in one specimen. 



HaUtat. — Southern China, from Shanghai to Hongkong on the 

 coast west to Lun-ngan-fu, province of Sze-chuen, in the interior. 



Doctor Werner has recorded its occurrence in Formosa on the 

 strength of a specimen in the Museum of the IMunich Academy of 

 Sciences, said to be from Tamsui. 



Genus HOLARCHUSa Cope. 



1854. Simotes Dumeril and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., VII, Pt. 1, p. 624 (tyi^e, S. russelii 



=arnensis) (not of Fischer, 1817). 

 1887. Holarchus Cope, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 32, p. 54 (no species mentioned). 

 1893. Dicraulax Cope, Amer. Natural., 1893, p. 480 (type, Holarchus tnnotatus= 

 Simotes purpurascens .) 



The generic name Shnotes, by which the snakes of tliis genus 

 have long been designated is preoccupied by Simotes of Fischer for a 

 group of mammals as early as 1817. It has consequently to be 

 replaced. Cope proposed Holarchus, in 1887, as a term for those 

 species of the genus which have an undivided anal. It is not believed 

 that this character alone, which moreover is not always constant, is 

 sufficient ground for a division of the genus, and as Holarchus is the 

 name next in date after Simotes it must stand for the combined genus. 



a From oXo<;, whole, undivided; dpx6<;, anus. 



2G485— No. 58—07 23 



