7U-1 



REJPUKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



ALSOPHIS ANTILLENSIS" (Schlegel). 



1S37. Pmmmophis antillensis Schlegel, Phys. Serp., II, p. 214 (type localities: 

 St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Cuba) (part: St. Thomas). — 

 Dromicus a. Dumeril and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., VII, i, 1854, p. 659 

 (part: St. Thomas) .—Guenther, Cat. Colubr. Sn. Brit. Mus., 1858, 

 p. 129 (St. Thomas).— Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 560 (St. 

 Thomas).— Jan, Icon. Ophid.,livr. 25, 1867, pi. i, fig. 1 (St. Thomas).- 

 BouLENCxER, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 123 (Vieques, St. Thomas).— 

 Meerwarth, Mittli. Naturh. Mus. Hamburg, XVIII, 1901, p. 12, pi. i, 

 fig. 13 (St. Thomas) .—Alsophis a. Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1862, p. 

 76. — Reinhardt and Luetken, Vid. Meddel. Naturh. Foren. (Copen- 

 hagen), 1862 (1863), p. 218; author's separate, p. 66 (St. Thomas, St. 

 John, Vieques). — Garman, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, XXIV, 1887, 

 p. 282 (St. Thomas; Haiti [?]). 



This species, as said before, ditfers essentially from ^L 'portorlcensls 

 in having 19 scale rows around the body instead of IT. But while this 

 is true in the vast majority of cases, there may occasionally be found 

 a specimen with two scale rows too few or too many. Thus, out of 78 



171 173 



Figs. 171-173.— Alsophis antillensis. 2 x natural size. 171, top of head; 172, side of head; 173, 



underside of head. No. 25557, U.S.N.M. 



specimens examined by me, or of which I have records, a single 

 A. antUlensls, from Culebra Island, has 17 scale rows. It would be 

 difficult to identif}" this specimen by its scutellation alone, as its scale 

 formula is identical with ^4. ■poTtoricensh^ but that it is not the latter 

 species is shown (apart from its habitat) by the peculiar color pattern 

 of its fifth scale rows, which shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that 

 it is only an abnormal ^1. antiUemis. 



Description.— A(Mt; U.S.N.M. No. 25554; Culebra Island; Feb- 

 ruary 40, 1899; A. B. Baker, collector. Rostral much ])roader than 

 high, barel}' visible from above; internasal suture scarcel}" shorter 

 than the prefrontal suture; frontal broader than supraocular, about 



« Antillean, from the Antillean Islands. 



