218 BULLETIN 114, U^TITED STATES I^TATIOlsrAL. MUSEUM. 



Total length 473 mm.; tail length 73 mm.; tail therefore about 13 per cent of total 

 length. Sex, male. 



The dentition is as follows: Maxillary teeth 13 on each side; mandibular teeth 14 

 on the left side, 15 on the right; palatine teeth 10 on the left side; pterygoid teeth 22 

 on the left, and 19 on the right. 



Pattern of body composed of 18 dorsal saddles of red, bordered with black, separated 

 by whitish areas, and extending upon the ends of the ventral plates; 4 additional 

 saddles of red on the tail. The dorsal saddles are from 5 to 8 scales in length above, 

 narrowing to 2 to 4 scales on the first row. The black borders are li to 2 scales wide 

 on the middorsal line, and ^ to 1 scale on the first row. The whitish cross bands are 

 about 1| scales wide above, widening suddenly on the lower rows to 4 or 5 scales on 

 the first row. On the belly, opposite each dorsal whitish cross band is a large squarish 

 blotch of black. 



On the head a black band 2 mm. in width crosses the posterior portions of the parietal 

 plates, leaving their tips whitish, and ending on the seventh upper labials. The 

 frontal and temporals are mostly black, the rest of the head mostly light, probably red 

 in life. The chin and throat are immaculate whitish. 



Remarks. — So few specimens of this form are known that no general description can 

 be drawn up. It is by no means certain even that all the specimens here referred to 

 virginiana are conspecific with the type. 



The other specimen from Raleigh (cat. no. 56197, U.S.N.M.) is almost identical with 

 the type in structural features, but the red saddles extend farther upon the belly. 

 Anteriorly their black borders are separated by only a narrow midventral strip of 

 whitish, while posteriorly they meet below. The specimen from Cuscowilla, Vir- 

 ginia (cat. no. 26181, U.S.N.M.) is a juvenile closely similar in scutellation to the 

 two preceding and nearly like the last in pattern, but there is a tendency to develop 

 black pigment on the fore part of the belly between the ends of the red saddles. This 

 tendency becomes more and more pronounced posteriorly, developing also opposite 

 the whitish dorsal cross bands, so that the latter half of the belly is nearly all black. 



The specimen from Appomattox County, Virginia (Cat. no. 4466, U.S.N.M.) lacks 

 the head but otherwise shows itself to be almost identical with the type. The ventral 

 borders of the red saddles are, however, less well defined, and black pigment on the 

 belly is less regularly distributed. 



The specimen from Alberene, Virginia (Cat. no. 25321, U.S.N.M.) shows a few 

 differences from the others. The twenty-first row of scales is represented by four 

 scales on one side of the body, the lower labials are 9 on each side, the loreals are pres- 

 ent, the upper anterior temporals are present, although small, and the number of red 

 saddles reaches 25. Furthermore, the black borders of these saddles show very little 

 of that widening in the middorsal region that is so characteristic of elapsoides. The 

 red saddles extend well upon the ventral plates and are sharply delimited by their 

 black borders. Otherwise there is very little black pigment on the belly. The 

 whitish crossbands are rather strongly mottled with darker on the sides, and all the 

 dorsal scales in the red areas are less strongly but very distinctly mottled with dark. 

 In scutellation this specimen is perhaps nearer to L. triangulum triangulum, but it 

 can certainly never be regarded as identical with that form, and, all things considered, 

 it seems much better to identify it provisionally as virginiana. 



The specimen from the District of Columbia (Museum of Zoology, University of 

 Michigan, no. 52203) is much more puzzling. The scutellation is closely like elap- 

 soides, but the whole snake is larger and stouter, measming 581 mm., even with the 

 tip of the tail missing. Furthermore the red saddles number 27 and overlap the ends 

 of the ventral plates only a little. The black borders of the saddles show scant if any 

 tendency to widen in the middorsal region, and the head shows faint but recognizable 

 vestiges of the common parietal and supraocular spots of triangulum and some speci- 



