VI. LEPTODEIRA ALBOFUSCA (LACEPEDE) A SYNONYM 

 OF LEPTODEIRA ANNULATA (LINN.EUS), 



By Lawrence Edmonds Griffin. 



Coluber annidatus Linn^us, Mus. Ad. Frid., i754. P- 34. plate VII, fig. 2; Syst. 



Nat., Ed. XII, I, 1766, p. 386. 

 Coluber albofuscus Lacepede, Serp., II, 1789, pp. 94 and 312. 

 Leplodeira annulata Boulenger, Cat. Snakes, III, 1896, p. 97. 

 Leptodeira albofusca Boulenger, Cat. Snakes, III, 1896, p. 95. 



Leptodeira annulata is one of the earliest known and commonest 

 serpents of South America. Since originally described it and its 

 varietal forms have been referred to at least six other species, all of 

 which Boulenger {loc. cit.) reduced to synonyms of L. annulata and 

 L. albofusca. In the course of an examination of the collection of 

 snakes from South America in the Carnegie Museum I was impressed 

 by the difificulty of satisfactorily separating these two species, finally 

 reaching the conclusion that there was only one species represented in 

 the collection, namely, L. annulata} A careful study of the species 

 in question has been facilitated by the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, which has very kindly loaned me its entire representation of 

 these two species, making a total of sixty-nine specimens available for 

 comparison. The specimens of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 have been identified by several naturalists, mostly as L. annulata. 

 I have submitted them and the specimens of the Carnegie Museum 

 to a critical re-examination, with the result that I find myself unable 

 to make a satisfactory distinction between L. annulata and L. albo- 

 fusca. In order to be as brief as possible I shall omit the tabulated 

 measurements and counts which were made, and shall submit only 

 the condensed results. All counts and measurements were made 

 under a binocular microscope. 



The best definitions of the two species which are generally available 

 are those of Boulenger ( Catalogue of Snakes in the British Museum, 



1 Griffin, Lawrence Edmonds: "A Catalog of the Ophidia from South America 

 at Present (June, 1916) Contained in the Carnegie Museum with Descriptions of 

 Some New Species," Memohs of the Carnegie Museum, VII, 1916, pp. 163-228; 

 Plate XXVIII. 



321 



