356 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



behind the upper one, except on one side in two examples in which 

 the outer part of the parietal is separated off so as to form a small 

 abnormal upper temporal of the first row. 



The ventrals, in twelve recorded specimens, vary between 162 and 

 173, the subcaudals between 46 and 55. 



Habitat. — Originally described from the island of Formosa, where 

 it has been recorded from Tamsui, Takao, Taipa, and now from By o- 

 ritsu, on the strength of a specimen in the U. S. National Museum 

 recently acquired from Mr. A. Owston. It has since been found in the 

 province of Kwangtung, southern China, and in the adjacent island 



of Hainan. 



List of sperimcns of Holurclnts fonnosanus. 



a Description, p. 354; figs. 304-306. 

 Genus DINODON" Dumeril. 



1853. Dinodon Dumeril, Mem. Acad. Sci., Paris, XXIII (p. 463), author's sep- 

 arate, p. 67.^DuMERiL and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., VII, Pt. 1, p. 447 (type, 

 D. cancellatum) . 



1860. Eumesodon Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 262 (type, E. semicarinatus). 



1860. Lepidocephahis Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 498 (same type). 



1893. Dianodon Cope, Amer. Natural., XXVII, May, 1893, p. 481 (emendation). 



The genus Dinodon differs chiefly from Ophites Wagler ^ in the 

 dentition, inasmuch as the former has a double interruption of the 

 maxillary series, while in the latter only the anterior maxillaries are 

 separated from the posterior series by a single interval. 



« From (5z?, double; vcoS6<;, toothless; referring to the two toothless spaces in 

 each upper jaw. 



& This is the correct name for the genus which many authors, including Boulenger, 

 call Lycodon Boie. The latter name appears first in Ferrusac's Bulletin des Sciences 

 Naturelles, 1826, p. 238, unaccompanied by any diagnosis, but embracing with cer- 

 tainty only three species then knowni, namely: " Col. audax Baud. — C. Hebe Baud. — 

 C. mdicus Linn." One of these is the type. In the following year Boie's diagnosis 

 of the genus was published in the Isis, 1827, p. 521, and the type is expressly given 

 as Col. audax. This certainly fixes the name Lycodon beyond a doubt, and it will 

 consequently take precedence over Lycognathus for the South American snakes of 

 the latter genus. The name next in time for the Asiatic genus is Ophites Wagler (Syst. 

 Amph., 1830, p. 186), which was based on the single species L. subcinctus Boie, 



