ART. 25 CHINESE AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES STEJNEGEE 65 



1899. Polyodontopliis collaris Boitlenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., vol. 1, 

 pi. 12, fig. l^J-lc (Ichaiig, Hupeh) ; Proc. Zool. Soe. London, 1899, p. 162 

 (not of Gray) (Kuatun, Fukien). — Angel, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, 

 1920, no. 2, p. 112 (Kweiehow). 



The specimen from Ichaiig, upon which Guentlier based his 

 Ahlabes chinensis^ has two anterior temporals, as mentioned and 

 figured by Boulenger (pi. 12, fig. 1 c), the lower one being inter- 

 preted as the eight supralabial " excluded from the labial margin." *^ 

 Boulenger, however, reduced Guenther's name to a synonym under 

 Polyodontophis collaris^ of which he had 11 specimens from the 

 Khasi Hills, Nepal and Darjeeling, in the Himalaya, as well as from 

 Burma, none of which had a separate lower anterior temporal. 

 Later he received two specimens from Kuatun, Fukien, both of them 

 agreeing with Guenther's type from Ichang in the temporal arrange- 

 ment, but having found this character to be inconstant in P. sub- 

 punctatus and P. histrigatus he expected that it " would likewise 

 break down if a larger number of Chinese specimens could be 

 examined." 



The United States National Museum has two more specimens 

 to add to the Chinese record, viz. No. 66435 collected by Sowerby 

 at Foochow, and No. 35521 from Shih-chuan-hsien, on the Han 

 River in southern Shensi, by Prof. E. Blackwelder. In both of 

 these the lower anterior temporal is widely separated from the labial 

 edge, as is also the arrangement in the type specimen as figured by 

 Boulenger (fig. Ic). If this figure be compared with that of the 

 normal S. collaris^ fig. 1«, it will be seen that this temporal is 

 really the upper part of the eight labial separated off and not the 

 eight labial forced off the labial edge. It should also be noted that 

 in the two specimens before me the parietal is in contact with the 

 lower postorbital, a character supposed to distinguish S. geminatus 

 and S. subpunctatus. In addition to the separate lower temporal, 

 the five Chinese specimens known show a greater number of ventrals 

 than the western form. From the table given below, it appears that 

 the former have from 178 to 187 ventrals, while in the nine speci- 

 mens of the latter listed by Boulenger, the number of ventral ranges 

 between 159 and 180. Finally, our specimens from Shensi and 

 Fukien agree exactly in color pattern with that of the type from 

 Ichang (Boulenger, fig. lb) as contrasted with that of the regular 

 S. collaris (fig. 1.). 



Taking all the above facts into consideration, I consider it desir- 

 able to retain the name given by Guenther for the Chinese specimens. 



Since the above was set in type the National Museum has received 

 another specimen from Mr. Sowerby, collected at Kuliang. It is 



** Probably similarly interpreted by Guenther, as he gives tho temporal formula as 1 + 2 

 in the original description. 



9118—25 5 



