TYPHLOPS 



61 



width in the body length varies from 46 to 49; tail width in 

 tail length, 3.1. All the specimens save the type have 28 scale 

 rows around the body. The relation of the nasal cleft and the 

 preocular to the labials is identical in all the specimens ; they 

 are also identical in color. 



Remarks. — This species is related to Typhlaps olivaceus 

 (Gray), but differs in having the rostral reach the level of the 

 eye, and the nasal completely divided. The diameter of the 

 body is forty-six to forty-nine times in its total length. The 

 tail is more than three times as long as wide, with 4 to 6 more 

 rows of scales around the body than in T. olivaceiis. From 

 T. cumingii it differs in having the preocular in contact with 

 2 labials instead of 1, the tail much shorter, the rostral reach- 

 ing the level of the eyes, and in having more rows of scales about 

 the body. It is a larger, less-slender species than T. cumingii. 

 All four specimens were taken from the root masses of the 

 aerial fern Asplenium nidus, obtained when the high forest 

 trees were felled. The snakes burrow in the tough root masses 

 and feed on the larvse of ants and centipedes which are abun- 

 dant in the fern roots. 



TYPHLOPS SULUENSIS Taylor 

 TypMops suhiensis Taylor, Philip. Journ. Sci. § D 13 (1918) 257. 

 Description of species. — (From the type. No. 2001, Bureau of 

 Science collection; collected on Bubuan Island, Tapian group, 

 Sulu Archipelago, October 2, 1917, by E. H. Taylor.) Snout 

 rather pointed, with a moderately sharp edge ; rostral nearly 

 half the width of head, rather truncate behind, forming a broad, 

 straight suture with prefrontal ; latter very large, broadly trian- 

 gular in shape, its longest sutures with preoculars ; frontal very 

 small, bordered by 6 scales, about one-fifth the size of prefrontal ; 

 interparietal as wide as prefrontal, but somewhat smaller ; supra- 



