i8o 

 38. Hypsirhina Wagler. 



(Wagler, Syst. Amph. 169, 1830). 



Head small, not or slightly distinct from neck; eye small; 

 pupil round or vertically elliptic; shields of head large; nasals 

 in contact, partly divided, the cleft beginning at the first 

 labial or the loreal; internasal single or double; loreal present. 

 Maxillary teeth 10 — 16, separated by an interspace from two 

 enlarged, grooved teeth; anterior mandibular teeth longest. 

 Body round, covered with smooth scales without pits, in 

 19 — 33 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail rather short; subcaudals 

 in two rows. 



Distribution. S. E. Asia; Papuasia; N. Australia. 



Key to the I ndo-Au st r al ian species. 



A. One or more labials entering the eye. 

 I. Scales in 19 rows. 



a. Two internasals I. If. alternans p. 180. 



b. A single internasal . , 2. H. plumbea p. 181. 



II. Scales in 21 (23) rows. 



a. Four or five lower labials in contact with 

 the anterior chin-shields. 



1. Loreal in contact with the internasal. 3. H. enhydi-is p. 181. 



2. Loreal not in contact with the internasal. 4. H. malannensis p. 182. 



b. Three lower labials in contact with the 



anterior chin-shields $• ^- polylepis p. 183. 



III. Scales in 27 (25) rows 6. H. albomaculata p. 183. 



B. Eye separated from the labials. 



1. Internasal single "}. H. putictata p. 184. 



2. Two internasals %. H. doriae p. 185. 



I. Hypsirhina alternans (Reuss). 



Brachyorrhos alternans., Reuss, Mus. Senckenb. I 1834, p. 1 55, pi. IX, fig. 3. 

 Hypsirhina a/h-rnans^ Boulenger, Cat. Sn. Ill 1896, p. 4 (s. syn.). 



Rostral more broad than deep; two internasals; frontal 

 broader than the supraocular, as long as or longer than its 

 distance from the tip of the snout, shorter than the parietals; 

 loreal as long as deep, in contact with the internasal; one 

 prae- and one or two postoculars; temporals 1 + 2; eight upper 

 labials, fourth entering the eye; four or five lower labials in 

 contact with the anterior chin-shields, which are larger than 



