griffin: ophidia from south America in carnegie museum 171 



Counts and Measurements. 



(No. 5.) (No. 346.) 



Anal 1/1 1/1 



Scale-rows 19 19 



Gastrostege.s 165 171 



Urosteges 77/77 71/71 



Upper labials 8(4.5) 8(4.5) 



Preoculars 1 1 



Postoculars 2 2 



Temporals 1,2 1,2 



Total length in mm 675 300 



Length of tail in mm 178 68 



11. Aporophis melanocephalus s\). nov. 



IVIaxillary teeth about twenty, followed after a considerable interspace by two 

 enlarged, compressed teeth below the posterior border of the eye; mandibular teeth 

 subequal. Head narrow, not much wider than neck; snout narrow, high; eye large, 

 pupil round. Body cylindrical, ventrals rounded; scales smooth, without pits, in 

 fifteen rows. Rostral broader than deep, visible from above; internasals as long as 

 wide, almost as long as the prefrontals; frontal once and a half as long as broad, sides 

 straight and nearly paraUel, longer than its distance from the end of the snout, 

 considerably shorter than the parietals; nostril between two nasals; loreal consider- 

 ably deeper than long; one preocular; two postoculars; temporals 1, 2; eight upper 

 labials, the fourth and fifth bordering the eye; five lower labials in contact with the 

 anterior chin-shields, which are as long as the posterior. 



Back and sides of body and tail uniform dark brown; each scale has a dark 

 brown center and light brown edge. The upper surface of the head is nearly black, 

 this color shading into the brown of the body on the neck. A black vertebral 

 stripe five scale-rows wide joins the black of the occiput. A black lateral stripe 

 partly covering the second and third rows of scales extends from the temples along 

 the neck. These three stripes quickly merge into the brown body color. Close 

 to the head they are separated by white lines one scale-row wide, which become 

 darker as they are followed caudad, and also soon merge into the color of the body. 

 There is a small white spot back of the eye on the outer part of the parietal, and a 

 similar spot in front of the eye on the lateral part of the prefrontal. The upper 

 lip and ventral surfaces of the head and body are white, without dark markings. 



The type. No. 18, of the Catalog of the Reptilia in the Carnegie Museum, is a 

 female, taken at Las Juntas, Bolivia, 250 M. above sea-level, by Jose Steinbach 

 in December, 1913. It is unique. 



