704 



REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



ALSOPHIS ANTILLENSIS" (Schlegel). 



1837. Psammophis antillensis Schlegel, Phys. Serp., II, p. 214 (type localities: 

 St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Cuba) (part: St. Thomas). — 

 Dromicus a. Dumeril and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., VII, i, 1854, p. 659 

 (part: St. Thomas). — Guenther, Cat. Colubr. Sn. Brit. Mus., 1858, 

 p. 129 (St. Thomas).— Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 560 (St. 

 Thomas).— Jan, Icon. Ophid.,livr. 25, 1867, pi. i, rig. 1 (St. Thomas).— 

 Boclenger, Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 123 (Vieques, St. Thomas).— 

 Meerwarth, Mitth. Naturh. Mus. Hamburg, XVIII, 1901, p. 12, pi. i, 

 fig. 13 (St, Thomas).— Alsophis a. Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1862, p. 

 76. — Reinhardt and Luetken, Vid. Meddel. Naturh. Foren. (Copen- 

 hagen), 1862 (1863), p. 218; author's separate, p. 66 (St. Thomas, St. 

 John, Vieques). — Garman, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, XXIV, 1887, 

 p. 282 (St. Thomas; Haiti [?]). 



This species, as said before, differs essentially from A. portoricensis 

 in having- 19 scale rows around the body instead of 17. But while this 

 is true in the vast majority of cases, there may occasionally be found 

 a specimen with two scale rows too few or too many. Thus, out of 78 



172 



171 173 



Figs. 171-173. — Alsophis antillensis. 2 x natural size. 171, top of head; 172, side of head; 173, 



underside of head. No. 25557, U.S.N.M. 



specimens examined by me, or of which I have records, a single 

 A. antillensis, from Culebra Island, has 17 scale rows. It would be 

 difficult to identify this specimen by its scutellation alone, as its scale 

 formula is identical with A. portoricensis, but that it is not the latter 

 species is shown (apart from its habitat) by the peculiar color pattern 

 of its fifth scale rows, which shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that 

 it is only an abnormal A. antillensis. 



Description.— Adult; U.S.N.M. No. 25554; Culebra Island; Feb- 

 ruary 10, 1899; A. B. Baker, collector. Rostral much broader than 

 high, barely visible from above; internasal suture scarcely shorter 

 than the prefrontal suture; frontal broader than supraocular, about 



« Antillean, from the Antillean Islands. 



