744 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MTJSEUM, 1898. 



DIADOPHIS REGALIS Baird and Girard. 



Diadophis regalis Baird aud Girard, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. 1, Serp., 1853, 

 p. 115; U. S.and Mexican Bound. Surv., II, 1859, p. 22, pi. xix, fig. 2.— Cope, 

 Check-list N. A. Batr. Rept., 1875, p. 38. 



Coronella regalis Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 208. 



Body above nuiform greeuisli ash to blackish browu ; beneath light 

 yellow, scattered all over with small black spots. Dorsal scales in 17 

 rows. Superior labials, 7; temporals, l-'-l; oculars, 2-2. 



Head proportionately short aud broad behind; flattened above; 

 snout rounded. Eyes very small. Frontal plate subpeutagonal, taper- 

 ing i)osteriorly. Superciliaries narrower anteriorly. Body long and 

 subcylindrical. Scales proportionally large and elongated, in 17 rows; 

 those of the outer row conspicuously broader. The upper aud lower 

 jaws and inferior surface of head spotted with black, on a light ground. 

 Color of the abdomen extending to the outer row of scales, which are 

 dotted with blat^k posteriorly. The black spots on the abdomen extend 

 considerably beyond the anus. 



Two distinct color forms are represented in this species, as follows : 



Upper surfaces bluish ashen; color of belly on first row of scales D. r. regalia. 



Upper surfaces to gastrosteges brownish black D. r. arnyi. 



Of fourteen specimens of the Biadophis regalis examined, all have 

 seven superior labials but two, which have eight. 



DIADOPHIS REGALIS REGALIS Baird and Girard. 

 Diadophis punctatus regalis Cope, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 32, 1887, p. 80. 



Fig. 155. 



Diadophis kegalis regalis Baird and Giraed. 



X 1.5. 



Camp Grant, Arizona. 



Cat. No. 8019, U.S.N.M. 



This subspecies presents great variations in tlie development of the 

 nuchal yellow collar. In Cat. Ili^os. 8019 and 2067 it covers live rows of 



