HEBPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 461 



AGKISTRODON BLOMHOFFII PAFFINIS' (Gray). 



1849. ? Trigonocephaliis nffinis (jray, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., p. 14 (tyi)e-locality 

 unknown; type in Brit. Mu8.; Capt. Sir Edward Belcher, collectorj. 



Allusion has already been made (p. 451) to two specimens from 

 Yaeyama, in the United States National Museum, which in every 

 respect except color agree with the specimens from Japan proper. As 

 there stated their ground color (in alcohol) is a "tawn3'-olive/' uni- 

 form on top of head, but indistinctly varied and marbled on back and 

 sides with blackish, and with indications of pale cross bands; a band 

 slightly darker than the ground color through eye and temples ; lips 

 whitish, as is also the whole underside, each ventral sprinkled with 

 irregular blackish brown dots and spots on the basal half. 



I venture to suggest that the type specimen of Gray's Trigono- 

 cephalus affinis in British Museum may belong to this form. At least 

 his brief description seems to justify such a suggestion. The speci- 

 men has no locality attached to it, but it was presented to the museum 

 by Capt. Sir Edward Belcher. As noted later under Trimeresurus 

 elegans (p. 471,) Belcher surveyed and collected on Ishigaki shima, 

 in the Yaeyama group for three weeks, and there is consequently a 

 possibility that the type of TrigonocejjJialus affinis came from that 

 island. Under these circumstances I adopt Gray's name provision- 

 ally and with the necessary reservation. 



Finally I wish to call attention to specimen d in Boulenger's enum- 

 eration of the specimens of yl. hlomhoffii in the British Museum.^ It is 

 a female with 142 ventrals and 43 subcaudals, presented by Mr. 

 M. K. Rokugo, and said to have been collected in "Okinawa, Loo 

 Choo Islands." Nobody else has recorded the mamushi from the 

 middle group or Okinawa shima proper, and it is therefore rather 

 probable that the specimen in question came from some other locality, 

 possibly from the southern group. 



It is not in the least probable that the Yaeyama Agkistrodon is 

 directly connected, in a genetic sense, with the typical A. hlomhoffii in 

 Japan. It seems much more likely that the former is a slight modifi- 

 cation of the Formosan stock w^hich has developed in the same direc- 

 tion as the Japanese form, viz, toward an increased number of sub- 

 caudals, assuming at the same tune a peculiar pale coloration. As a 

 slight indication of their relationship with the mainland form rather 

 than with the one from Japan, I may mention the absence of the white 

 spot on the anterior corner of the long lower postocular. 



As previously intimated, the Yaeyama specimens are mainly dis- 

 tinguished from the t3^pical A. hlomhoffii by the coloration and a 

 detailed description of the lepidosis is therefore unnecessary. I wish, 

 however, to call attention to a peculiarity in their scutellation (fig. 365) , 



a Signifying related. ^Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., Ill, p. 526. 



