2 University of Michigan 



moderate, with round pupil; scales smooth, with two apical pits, 

 in 17 to 27 rows; anal plate entire; tail moderate; caudals in two 

 rows. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE FORMS OF LAMPROPELTIS 



a". Pattern of narrow cross bands of black, the alternate bands mLsed or split 

 with red; ground color above, slate gray; head very distinct from neck. 



L. alterna (Brown). 

 (Davis Mountains, Texas.) 



a^ Pattern not of narrow dorsal cross-bands of black with the alternate bands 

 mixed or split with red; head usually only slightly distinct from neck. 



b'. Color pattern without red^ and without dorsal blotches of brown or gray 

 with black borders. Getulus group. 



c". Scales chiefly black with sharply defined white or yellow spots (not 

 light at base shading gradually into a dark distal border), these 

 3-ellow spots often so grouped as to form 50 or more narrow cross 

 bands on body and tail. 



d". Scale rows on middle of body 23 or 25; no light centers, dorsally, 



on the scales between the cross-bands; head mostly black. 



L. getulus spkndida (Baird and Girard). 



(Southeastern Arizona to the ninety-seventh meridian; southern 

 Texas, and northern Mexico.) 

 d^ Scale rows on middle of body usually 21. 



e'. A yellow spot on practically all of the dorsal scales. 



L. getulus holbrooki (Stejneger). 

 (Eastern Texas to southeastern Wyoming, east to eastern 

 Illinois, and south to the Gulf of Mexico.) 

 e'. Scales between the dorsal cross-bands without light centers 

 or with only a ver>' few small ones. 



L. getulus niger (Yarrow). 

 (Eastern Illinois to Ohio, south to central Alabama.) 

 c'. Pattern in rings, cross-bands, or stripes, or chiefly of scales white at 

 base shading gradually into a black distal border, but not chiefly of 

 sharply defined white or yellow spots on black scales. 



f. Posterior chin shields nearly as long and nearly as wide as 

 anterior, in contact or separated by not more than one 

 small scale; pattern neither of rings nor of longitudinal 

 stripes. 

 g'. Many dorsal cross-bands of white or yellow. 



' The red fades to whitish in alcohol, but it is sufficient, for the purpose 

 of the key, to determine that the pattern is in two colors instead of in three. 



