BIHANG TILL Z. SV. VET.-AKAD. HANDL. BAND 27. AFD. IV. N:0 o. 15 



Arrhyton Quenselii. Spec. nov. 



Plate I, figures 5, 6 and 7. 



In the Royal Museum there are kept from an earlier 

 period three snakes, named Coluber Fetola, L. They are all 

 labeled and probably determined by Professor C. Quensel, 

 who was Director of the museum of the E,. Academy of Science 

 from 1799 to 180G. In bis catalogue of 1802 we find them 

 stated without indication of locality or collector and very 

 probably the must have been in the museum before his time. 

 Externally the three specimens seem to correspond fairly 

 well — Quensel also says: »Nostra exempla pallida et millo 

 modo dissimilia» — , but on closer examination we find, that 

 they belong to two genera far removed from each other. 

 The one specimen namely is an Oxyrhopus p)etolarius, the 

 present name for Linn^us's Coluher petolarius as well as for 

 his Coluher Petola, and then correctly named by Quensel, 

 but the two other specimens, though, as mentioned above, in 

 colour and external appearance very similar to the former 

 (all being rather discoloured), differ from this one in many 

 important points. Quensel already observed the great diffe- 

 rence in number of ventral and subcaudal shields, which, 

 however, he did not believe would cause any separation of 

 the snakes into difPerent species. The characteristic denti- 

 tion, very unlike that of Oxyrhopus petolarius, indicates that 

 the specimens in question ought to be put down under the 

 genus Arrhyton, Griinther, where they then would represent 

 a species hitherto not described, to which I propose the name 

 A. Quenselii in memory of Professor Quensel, whose magni- 

 ficent catalogue with its brief but distinct notes on the rep- 

 tiles of the Royal Museum is of uncountable value for the 

 reviser of the collections. 



Hypapophyses absent in the posterior dorsal vertebrse. 

 Palatine and pterygoid teeth few, sparsely sitting, but di- 

 stinct. Maxillary teeth ten, the eight anterior small, equal 

 in size, closely set, after a considerable interspace followed 

 by two strongly enlarged and compressed, blade-iike fångs. 

 All solid. Mandibular teeth about equal in number, but all 



