896 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 

 Osceola doliata annulata Kennicoit. 



Catalogue 

 No. 



1855 



1841 



1857 



4293 



7116 



1845 



12680 



17031 



17032 



Number 

 of speci- 

 mens. 



Locality. 



Brownsville, Texas . 

 do 



Malamoras, Mexico 



San Antonio, Texas 



Cadereita, Nuevo Leon .. 

 Guanajuata, Mexico 



Cameron County, Texas 



From whom received. 



Colonel Van Vliet 

 Lieutenant Couch 



Lieutenant Couch 

 A Dug^s 



C. K. Worthen 



Nature of specimen. 



Alcoholic. 



The variations presented by this series are instructive as showing 

 the connections between these forms. In Cat. No. 711G the abdominal 

 black patches are divided by a pale longitudinal median line, which 

 constitutes such a separation of the inferior T)orders of the saddle 

 spots as characterizes the 0. d. parallela. The head lias the normal 

 color. In Cat. No. 17031 these black patches are obsolete except as to 

 the posterior four or five. It thus approaches the 0. d. conjuncta Jan 

 of Mexico, which it also resembles in head coloration. Cat. No. 17032, 

 from the same locality, is colored typically. 



The most northern locality from which I know this speci&s is San 

 Aiigelo, Texas, from which place I have received it from Mr. Otto 

 Lerch. 



The 0. doliata conjuncta^ is from Mexico generally, but it has not yet 

 been found near the border. 



The 0. d. polyzona"^ is also very abundant in Mexico, especially in the 

 Sierra Caliente. It ranges as far south as Panama. It is brilliantly 

 colored, and reaches the full dimensions of the species. 



OSCEOLA DOLIATA COCCINEA Schlegel. 



OpMholua doliatus cocdneus Cope, Check-list N. Amer. Batr. Kept., 1875, p. 36; 



Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., IS'^S, p. 382. 

 Coronella coccinea Schlegel, Ess. Pbys. Serp., II, 1837, p. 67, pi. ii, tig. 11. 

 Ophibolus doliatus Baird aud Girard, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. 1, Serp., 1853, p. 89. 



Head rather more depressed than in the species of the other sections. 

 The lower postocular, which is smaller than the upper, rests in a notch 

 between the fourth and fifth upper labials, lying longitudinally against 

 the latter. In many other species the contact is not so intimate. 



Color in life, bright red. The body is encircled by twenty-four pairs 

 of black rings (the nineteenth opposite the anus), each pair inclosing a 

 yellow ring between them. Along the back the black and yellow rings 

 are nearly of equal width, the three covering a length on the back of 



^Ophibolus d. coccinea Cope, Cat. Batr. Rept. Centr.-Amer. Mex., 1887, p. 78. 



- Lampropeltis poly zona Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, p. 258; Bull. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus., 1887, p. 78. L. micropholis Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, p. 257. 

 Coronella formosa Schlegel, nomen nudum. 



