91 



with black. Length of head and body 540 mm.; tail 270 mm. 

 Habitat: Sumatra (Deli!, Lower Langkat, Siboga, Benakat 

 in Palembang); Natuna Islands; Borneo! (Baram river, Kina 

 Balu, Mt. Dulit, Kuching, Limbang, Sadong river, Mt. Mulu 

 1000 feet, Spitang river, Labuan). — Malay Peninsula. 



15. Macropisthodon Boulenger. 



(BouLENGEK, Cat. Snakes I p. 265, 1893). 



Head distinct from neck; eye moderate or large; pupil round. 

 Maxillary teeth 12 — 20, separated by an interspace from a 

 pair of very large fangs; mandibular teeth about equal. Body 

 stout, covered with strongly keeled scales, with pits, in 19 — 27 

 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail moderate; subcaudals in two rows. 



Distribution. S. E. Asia. 



Key to the Indo-Australian species. 



A. Maxillary teeth 1 8 to 20 -j- 2; usually 8 upper labials; 



black, or with black transverse bands I. AL faviceps p. 91. 



B. Maxillary teeth 12 to 15 -|- 2 ; usually 7 upper labials; 



a dark vertebral stripe 2. M. rhodonieias p. 92. 



I. Macropisthodon flaviceps (Dum. & Bibr.). 



Amphiesiiia Jiaviceps^ Dumeril & Bibron, Erp. Gen. VII 1854, p. 738. 

 Macropisthodon jlaviceps^ Boulenger, Cat. Sn. I 1893, p. 266 (s. syn.). 



Rostral just visible from above, twice as broad as deep; 

 internasals shorter than the praefrontals; frontal as long as or 

 slightly shorter than its distance from the tip of the snout, 

 shorter than the parietals; loreal as long as deep or more deep; 

 one prae- and three or four (rarely two or five) postoculars; 

 temporals 2 + 2 or 2 -(-3; eight (sometimes 7) upper labials, 

 fourth and fifth (or third and fourth) entering the eye ; five 

 or six lower labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields; 

 latter shorter than the posterior. Scales in 19 rows, strongly 

 keeled; ventrals 120 — 138; anal divided, subcaudals 49 — 60. 



Black above; head yellowish-brown or olive; olive beneath 

 with black transverse bands or entirely black. Young specimens 

 with greyish or pale olive transverse bars, wider towards the 

 sides and becoming indistinct in the adult; a broad orange 

 band across the nape, separated from the head by a broad 

 black band. Length of head and body 650 mm; tail 190mm. 



