Suborder SERPENTES Linnseus 

 Serpentes Linn^US, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 1 (1758) 214. 



This name appears to be the oldest for this group of animals 

 and is equivalent to the suborder Ophidia of other author's. 



Key to the Philippine families of the Serpentes. 



«.\ No ectopterygoid bone; teeth in upper jaw only.... Typhlopida; (p. 47). 

 a'. Ectopterygoid present; teeth in both jaws. 



V. Coronoid present; supratemporal large, suspending quadrate; ves- 

 tiges of hind limbs Boidse (p. 67). 



v. Coronoid absent; no vestige of hind limb. 

 &. A mental groove; maxillary horizontal. 



d}. Prefrontal bone touching nasal Xenopeltidae (p. 72). 



d". Prefrontal bone not touching nasal. 



e\ None of the anterior maxillary teeth grooved or per- 

 forated -- Natricidae (p. 76). 



e^ Anterior maxillary teeth grooved or perforated. 



Elapidae (p. 224). 

 (f. No mental groove; maxillary horizontal.... Amtlycephalids (p. 280). 

 c". A mental groove; maxillary vertically erectile.... Crotalidae (p. 283). 



NONPOISONOrS SNAKES 



TYPHLOPID^ 



Typhlopidx, part., Jan, Elenco Sist. Ofid. (1863) 9; Gunther, Rept. 

 Brit. India (1864) 170; Cope, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 23 (1886) 

 481; BOULENGEE, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. 1 (1893) 3. 



"Cranial bones solidly united ; no ectopterygoid ; pterygoid not 

 extending to quadrate or mandible; no supratemporal; pre- 

 frontal forming a suture with nasal ; maxillary loosely attached, 

 with a few teeth disposed transversely to the axis of the skull ; 

 no teeth on palate. Mandible edentulous ; coronoid bone present. 

 Vestiges of pelvis, reduced to a single bone on each side. Body 

 covered with uniform cycloid scales; eyes under the shields." 

 {Boule7iger.) 



The family has three genera : Helminthophis with five species, 

 confined to South and Central America; TypMoTihis with one 

 species, confined to South America; and the very large cosmo- 

 politan genus Typhlops. 



The Typhlopidffi are remnants of a large cosmopolitan group 

 of snakes, and represent probably the oldest living types. They 



47 



