360 The Philippine Journal of Science i9i8 



Description {from Boulenger) . — Maxillary teeth eight to 

 twelve, posterior very strongly enlarged and compressed; man- 

 dibular teeth subequal. Head short, not distinct from neck ; eye 

 rather small with round pupil; rostral large. Body cylindrical; 

 scales smooth or feebly keeled, in 13 to 21 rows, with or without 

 apical pits; ventrals rounded or obtusely keeled laterally. Tail 

 short or moderate; subcaudals in two rows. Southern China, 

 East Indian Archipelago. Four species are known to occur in 

 the Philippine Islands. 



Key to the Philippine species of Holarchus. 



a\ Anal entire; scales in 17 rows. 



b\ Third and fourth labials entering eye. 



c\ Loreal as long as deep. Brown with a pink medial longitudinal 

 line, an indistinct lateral line, and a row of dim black spots on 

 second scale row. Below bright rose. 



H. meyerlinkii Steindachner. 

 r. Loreal longer than deep. Pale brownish to lavender with 19 

 transverse dark spots. Below yellow to bright pink. 



H. ancorus Girard. 



b'. Fourth labial entering eye; loreal absent. Pale lavender with 22 or 



23 dark blackish brown dorsal blotches; yellowish below with black 



spots on ventrals H. maculatus sp. nov. 



a". Anal divided; fourth labial entering eye; loreal present, little longer 

 than wide. Dark purplish brown with a dull salmon streak dorsally; 

 22 narrow transverse blotches H. burksi sp. nov. 



Holarchus meyerlinkii Steindachner. 



Simotes tneyerlinkii Steindachner, Sitzb. Ak. Wien (1891), 294; 



Barbour, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harv. Coll. (1912), 44, 118. 

 Simotes octolineatus BouLENGER, var. c, Cat. Sns. Brit. Mus. (1894), 



2, 224. 



Description of species. — Rostral broader than deep, the por- 

 tion seen from above a little more than half its distance from 

 the frontal; the internasals much smaller than the prefrontals, 

 the suture between them little less than that between the pre- 

 frontals; latter broader than long, touching only the posterior 

 part of nasal; frontal much longer than wide, longer than its 

 distance from the end of the snout, longer and wider than the 

 supraocular and longer than the parietals; latter longer than 

 broad, bordered by two temporals, touching one postocular; 

 nasal partially divided, longer than deep; a small square loreal 

 present ; preocular twice as long as wide ; two postoculars, upper 

 nearly twice as large as the lower; temporals 2-1-2, only the 

 first upper touching the postoculars ; six upper labials, the third 

 and fourth entering the eye ; the sixth and fifth rather narrowly 

 in contact; mental small; seven lower labials (six on right side) 



