CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 891 



OSCEOLA DOLIATA SYSPILA Cope. 



OphiboJus dolidtiis syspilus Cope, Proc. U. S. \at. Mus., XI, 1888, p. 384. 



Head small, flattened above, with the snout rounded; neck slightly 

 contracted; body elongated, rather slender; scarlet above, and jnarked 

 with black rings, in pairs; between each pair is a white ring. 



The vertical plate is pentagonal, with an acute angle behind; the 

 superior orbitals are oblong-quadrilateral, broadest behind, and not 

 projecting over the eye; the occipitals are polygonal, and very large; 

 the frontals are broad and pentagonal, narrowest externally, where they 

 descend to join an elongate quadrilateral, loreal i)late. The anterior 

 frontals are also quadrilateral, smaller than the jiosterior, and broadest 

 externally. The rostral plate is large, heptagonal, and concave below. 

 There are two nasal plates, the jDosterior square, the anterior lunated 

 behind for the nostril, which does not enter the posterior, but comes 

 out at its anterior border. There is a single anterior orbital plate, 

 oblong, slightly concave behind, and two small, subround, posterior 

 orbitals. The inferior wall of the orbit is made up of the third and 

 fourth superior labial plates, of which there are seven. 



Fig. 216. 



Osceola doliata syspila Cope. 



X 1.5. 



The nostrils are lateral and near the snout. The eyes are small, the 

 iris bright reddish gray. The neck is but slightly contracted, and is 

 covered with small, smooth, subhexagonal scales. The body is long, 

 tolerably stout, and covered above with scales similar to those of the 

 neck, but larger. The tail is rather short, thick at its root, but soon 

 becomes smaller, and terminates in a tip. 



The anterior top of the head is crossed with a black band at the 

 extremities of the occipitals, and the dark color may extend as far as 

 the prefrontal plates, inclusive. The body is scarlet, banded with 

 twenty-two i)airs of jet black rings, with a white ring between each 

 pair of black. These rings do not completely surround the body, as in 

 Osceola elapsoldea, but the lower part of the anterior ring of one j)air 

 is continued within the margins of the gastrosteges, with the jiosterior 

 ring of another pair, but always at a considerable distance on each side 

 of the middle line. 



The belly is marked with a single series of medium black spots, which 

 are oi)posite the spaces between the dorsal saddles, or opposite the 

 yellow rings. These spots represent the confluent lateral spots of the 



