46 MEMOIMS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



SNAKES AND LIZARDS FROM QUEENSLAND 

 AND THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. 



By Heber a. Longman. 

 SNAKES. 



ACROCHORDUS JAVANICUS, Homstedt. 

 (Plate VI.) 



Through the kindness of Mr, Esmond Parkinson, of' the Queensland 

 ^Railways Department, the Queensland Museum received in June last a 

 magnificent specimen of Acrochordus javanicus ( 9 ) nearly 7 feet in length. 

 This snake was secured alive from the Leichhardt River, which flows into the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria. In the collection there previously existed a head, attributed 

 to the same genus, said to have come from the Gill)ert River in the same district, 

 but as there was some doubt as to the locality no record was published. Now it 

 is evident that this head represents an immature example of the same species. 



This snake is occasionally found in the ]\Ialay Peninsula, Siam, Java, and 

 New Guinea, and its discovery in North Queensland makes an interesting 

 addition to its range. With its ally Chcrsydrns granulatus, it is placed in 

 the subfamily Acrochordime of the Aglypha series. Barbour suggests that 

 Chersydrus "is barely separable generically" from Acrocliordus, and that it may 

 on critical analysis be reduced to subgeneric rank.^ Our specimen agrees well 

 with the descriptions given by Giinther^ and Boulenger,^ but there are a few 

 points which may be noted. Running from the gular region to the anus are 

 ventral series of narrow elongated spinose scales, about four wide, which are 

 sharply differentiated from the acl.joining lepidosis. Dumeril and Bibron state*: 

 "Le ventre est plat, quoique presentant une legere saillie correspondant a la serie 

 des tubercules, qui se joignent deux a deux par une sorte de suture." The writer 

 has no exotic specimens for purposes of comparison, and it is thus possible that 

 the sharply dift'erentiated median ventral series of scales in our snake may be so 

 distinct from the more northern forms as to establish varietal or even specific 

 rank. This Leichhardt River snake is light chocolate brown above, with lighter 

 very irregular markings forming an indistinct series of bands. The sides and 

 ventral surface are lighter, and many of the spinose scales (which in structure 

 bring to mind those of certain Agamid lizards) present the appearance of white 

 enamel. There are about 145 scales around the body, 24 rows or so of the median 

 dorsal series being considerably larger, some being over 3 mm. high. 



The dimensions are as follow :; — Total length 2,100 nun. ; head &^ mm. ; 

 tail 245 ; max. diam. 300 mm. Weight 8 lb. 7 oz. 



1 1912. Barbour, Zoogeog. East Indian Is., Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harv., xliv. No. 1. 



2 Gunther, Rept. Brit. India, 1864, p. 336. 



2 Boulenger, Brit. Mus. Catalogue, i, p. 173. 



* Dumeril et Bibron, Erp. Gen., vii, p. 33, 1854. , 



