696 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 





darker band of six scale-rows is thus set off, a series of elongated 

 dusky spots on the seventh row, three scales apart, forming the limit 

 as a line of dashes; head above with numerous dusk}' spots, and a 

 longitudinal line on the middle of the frontal and the parietal suture 

 which, in combination with a spot on the posterior half of each supra- 

 ocular, form a fleur-de-lis-shaped figure, the 

 median line continuing some distance down 

 the back; a dusky, black-edged band on the 

 side of the head from rostral through nos- 

 tril and eye over temporals and connected 

 with the continuous dark lateral line on 



Fig. 164.— Leimadophisstahli. 2 x natural size. 

 Color pattern around middle of body. 

 No. 26883, U.S.N.M. 



162 I 163 



Figs. 162-163.— Leim ado pii is 

 stahli. 2 x natural size. 162, 

 top of head; 163, underside of 

 head. No. 26883, U.S.N.M. 



fourth and fifth scale-rows; labials 



whitish with a dusky spot on the 



middle of each, and a dusky 



oblique band from the eye to the 



commissure crossing the suture 



between fourth and fifth supralabials; underside whitish, dusted over 



with minute dusky specks, which show a tendency to congregate near 



the ends of the ventrals so as to form a line of ill-defined spots on 



each side of the abdomen. 



Dimensions. 



mm. 



Tip of snout to tip of tail 392 



Vent to tip of tail 125 



Variation. — Only one of the specimens examined shows any marked 

 variation, namely, No. 26883, in which the posterior nasal is fused with 

 the loreal. The number of ventrals (in 10 specimens) vary between 



151 and 159, the subcaudals between 83 

 and 97 pairs. The coloration is also fairly 

 constant. In No. 25529, the largest speci- 

 men at hand (550 mm.), the spots on the 

 median dorsal row are forming an almost 

 continuous line; the underside is also less 

 dusted over, the blackish specks being more concentrated in the lateral 

 abdominal line, which is rather broad and continuous, and toward the 

 middle line, where they form two lines of ill-defined spots. In No. 

 26883 (fig. 164) the median dorsal line of spots is but slightly indicated. 



Fig. 165.— Leimadophis stahli. 2 

 natural size. Nb. 26883, U.S.N.M. 



