CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



893 



OSCEOLA DOLIATA PARALLELA Cope. 



Ophibolns ilolialus 2)arallelu8 Cope, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XI, 1888, p. 385. 

 Scales in twenty one rows; rather short and wide. Head distinct, 

 muzzle not prominent. Kostral plate very little visible from above, 

 muzzle short. Frontal wide ; occipital nearly as long- as frontal and pre- 

 frontals. Loreal well developed, longer than higli; oculars 1-2; tem- 

 porals 2-2-3. The seven superior labials are all higher than long, the 

 third and fourth bounding orbit. Postgeneials half as long as pregen- 

 eials. 



Back crossed by saddles of brownish red (in alcohol) with black bor- 

 ders, which extend to the gastrosteges and there close by the longitudi- 

 nal direction of the black border. These borders of opposite sides form 



parallel longitudinal 

 black lines. The sad- 

 dles are long, covering 

 on an average nine 

 scales. There are twenty 

 of them in front of the 

 anus in the type speci- 

 men. They are separated 

 by yellow intervals of 

 one and a half scales in width. There are no lateral or ventral spots 

 o})i)osite to these alternating with the principal ones. The ground 

 color below is yellowish. The top of the head is reddish brown 

 bounded i)Osteriorly by black, which crosses the posterior border of 

 the occipital scuta. This is followed by a yellow half collar, which is 

 followed by the black exterior border of the first dorsal saddle, and 

 which turns backward along the ends of the gastrosteges like the 

 others. A yellowish black-edged spot on each superciliary plate, and 

 a similar one on the canthus rostralis, which sends a short branch 

 along the anterior border of the prefrontal. Superior parts of superior 

 labials black, inferior parts yellow. 



Cat. No. 10544; upper labials, 7; gastrosteges, 210 4- 1 ; urosteges, 46; scales, 21; 

 total length, 325 iniu; tail 42, mm. 



This subspecies occupies an interesting intermediate position between 

 0. d. annulata and 0. d. syspila. It differs from the former in the non- 

 fusion of the lateral saddle borders and the absence of a black collar; 

 from the latter in the absence of intermediate spots on the middle of 

 the belly and the close approximations of the borders of the saddles. 



Fig. 217. 



Osceola doliata paeallela Cope. 



X 1.5. 



Gainesville, Florida. 



Cut. No. 10544, U.S.N.M. 



