gQ SNAKES OP THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



"Teeth very numerous and closely set, 30 to 50 in each max- 

 illary, equal in size. Dentary bone completely detached from 

 the articular posteriorly. Head short, not or but slightly dis- 

 tinct from neck; eye moderate or rather small, with round pu- 

 pil. Body cylindrical, elongate; scales smooth, without apical 

 pits, in 17 or 19 rows. Tail moderate or long; subcaudals in 

 two rows. Hypapophyses developed throughout the vertebral 

 column." {Boulenger.) 



The occurrence in the Philippines of a species of this genus is 

 somewhat unusual, as no other member of the genus appears 

 to have been discovered in any of the East Indian islands. 

 Species occur in Madagascar, Comoro Islands, southeastern Asia, 

 and Central America ; it offers a good example of discontinuous 

 distribution. 



The Philippine species, Sibynophis bivittattis, is small and 

 harmless ; it is not recognized by people in Busuanga as being a 

 different snake from the poisonous DoUopMs bilineatus, which 

 occurs on the same island, the name odto-odto * being applied 

 to both species. They regard both as deadly poisonous. 



SIBYNOPHIS BIVITTATUS (Boulenger) 



Plate 10, fig. 1 

 Polyodontox)his hivittatus Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. VI 14 

 (1894) 82; Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. 3 (1896) 597; Griffin, Philip. 

 Journ. Sci. § D 6 (1911) 256. 



Description of species. — (From an unnumbered specimen in 

 Santo Tomas Museum ; collected in Palawan, collector and date 

 unknoA^m.) Rostral twice as broad as high, only a very small 

 part visible from above, forming its largest suture with inter- 

 nasals and its smallest with first labial; internasal large, ap- 

 parently bordering nostril, about as broad as long, their mutual 

 suture diagonal; prefrontals wider than long, also forming a 

 diagonal mutual suture (left prefrontal broadly in contact with 

 right internasal), in contact with and forming coequal sutures 

 with posterior nasal, loreal, preocular, and supraoculars ; frontal 

 elongate, shield-shaped, not quite twice as long as broad, much 

 longer than its distance to end of snout, as long as parietals or 

 minutely shorter, wider and slightly longer than supraoculars; 

 parietals longer than wide, in contact with both postoculars and 

 2 temporals; nasal divided, internasal bordering nostril; pos- 



* This name is usually applied to spedes of Typhlops, chieliy Tijphlops 

 braminiis, in Negros and other Visayan islands. It is regarded by the 

 A^isayans as deadly poisonous. 



