20i 



A NEW SNAKE FKOM THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS. 

 TBAGHI8CHIUM QUINQUELABIALIS. 



BY 



Maior F. Wall, lm.s., c.m.z.s. 



In 1909 I sent to the British Musenm a TrachiscMum from 

 Muktesar (circa 7,500 feet) which appeared a new species, but 

 which I preferred at the time to regaixl as an aberrant T. tenuiceps. 



Mr. Bonlenger in acknowledging the specimen considered it a 

 distinct species. 



I have now obtained a second specimen which leaves no doubt 

 in my mind that the species is one hitherto undescribed. This 

 specimen was obtained from the Naini Tal District, exact 

 locality and altitude uncertain, but one may infer the latter to 

 be above 6,000 feet, since a specimen of the Himalayan viper 

 (^Ancistrodon himalayanus) was in the same bottle. 



Only one specimen of this genus has ever been recorded from 

 the Western Himalayas previously, rk., T. fuscwm, found by 

 Dr. N. Annandale in Gilgit, and described by him as a new snake 

 under the name Ahlahes ciilgiticus (J. A. S., Bengal, 190o, p. 210). 



It appears to me that mj new species resembles T. tenuiceps 



most closel)^, but differs in having only one postocular and only 



5 supralabials. The temporal thus touches but one labial (the 



5th), differing from all the other species in which it touches the 



5th and 6th. In my first specimen the internasals were completely 



separated by the rostral, and the loreal shield found contact with 



the internasal, but in the second specimen the internasals are 



narrowly in contact, and do not meet the loreal. On the left side 



the praoocular is partially confluent with the loreal in the second 



specimen. 

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