2 20 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



37. Trimorphodon Cope. Medium sized, poisonous snakes with a 

 flat broad and very distinct head, resembling Leptodeira; but with 



2 loreals on each side; hinder maxillary teeth elongate and grooved; 

 scales smooth; anal plate single or divided: about 10 species in INIexico; 



3 in the United States. 



Key to the Species of Trimorphodon 



ai Dorsal spots divided by a white line; head dark above, with a 

 Ught lyre-shaped pattern. 



bi Anal usually single; color darker; body with 30 to 42 spots. T. vandenburghi. 



b-i Anal usually double; color paler; body with 21 to 33 spots. T. lyrophanes. 

 ao Dorsal spots soHd; head pale above, with 3 round black spots . . .T. vilkinsonii. 



T. vandenburghi Klauber. Similar to T. lyrophanes, differing as in 

 key: southwestern California. 



T. vilkinsonii Cope. Similar to T. lyrophanes: El Paso, Texas. 



T. lyrophanes (Cope). Length 1,750 mm.; tail 150 mm.; color gray, 

 with 21 to 33 brown blotches on the back in front of the anus; tail and 

 sides also blotched; scales in 23 rows: southern Arizona. 



Family 4. Elapidae. — Elapine snakes. Poisonous snakes with 

 usually many teeth in both jaws, the front pair of teeth in the upper 

 jaw forming a pair of short rigid fangs which are perforated each by a 

 poison canal opening at the tip; subcaudals in two rows; head covered 

 with plates and not scales: about 140 species in India, Africa, America 

 and Australia, including many very poisonous ones; i genus in the 

 United States. The largest of these snakes is the Indian cobra, which 

 may attain a length of 10 or 12 feet and is, perhaps, the most deadly 

 serpent known. 



Micrurus Wagler {Elaps Auct., not Schneider). Body slender 

 and cylindrical; head small; no loreal; scales smooth and in 15 rows; 

 anal plate divided: many species in tropical America; 2 in the United 

 States. 



M.fulvius (L.). Coral snake; harlequin snake. Length 930 mm.; 

 tail 70 mm.; color red, black and yellow, arranged in bands encircling 

 the body, there being about 14 broad red bands separated from as many 

 broad black bands by narrow yellow rings; head and tail with only black 

 and yellow; upper labials 7:.south Atlantic and Gulf States from North 

 Carolina to Texas; a burrowing snake which feeds on lizards and snakes, 

 with a bite that may be very dangerous; the most deadly American 

 snake; three-quarter of those bitten die. 



M. euryxanthus (Kennicott) . Similar to M. fulvius, but differing 

 from it in that the first broad band back of the head is red instead of 

 black: southern New Mexico and Arizona. 



