X.32 SNAKES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Hydrophobus Gunther, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Ill 9 (1862) 127; 



BOULENGER, Fauna Brit. India, Rept. (1890) 297. 

 Nymplwphidhun GtJNTHER, Rept. Brit. India (1864) 23-5. 

 Ulupe Blanfoed, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal 47 (1878) 129. 



"Maxillary teeth 8 to 10, rather short but stout, increasing 

 in size posteriorly; anterior mandibular teeth a little longer 

 than the posterior; one or two more or less distinct tooth-like 

 knobs on the basisphenoid. Head distinct from neck, much 

 depressed; eye moderate or rather large, with vertically elliptic 

 pupil. Body slender, slightly compressed; scales smooth, in 

 13 or 15 rows, with apical pits;* ventrals strongly keeled on 

 each side. Tail moderate; subcaudals in two rows." (Boii- 

 lenger.) 



The genus is small, only six or seven species being known. 

 Three are found in the East Indies. Dryocalainus suhanulatus 

 is confined to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra; D. tristrigatiis 

 is found in Borneo and the Natuna Islands; and D. philippinus 

 is found in Palawan. The last species resembles D. tristrigatus 

 in markings, and is otherwise similar save for the absence of 

 apical pits on scales. Snakes of this genus are harmless. 



DRYOCALAMUS PHILIPPINUS Griffin 



Plate 10, fig. 2; Plate 11, figs. 1 and 2 



DryocalamHs pliilippinus Griffin, Philip. Journ. Sci. § A 4 (1909) 

 596; § D 6 (1911) 259. 



Description of species. — (From No. 240, E. H. Taylor col- 

 lection; collected at Balabac, 1915, by C. M. Weber.) Head 

 distinct from neck, rather flattened ; rostral more than one and 

 a half times as broad as high ; part visible above less than one- 

 third its distance from frontal; internasals about as wide as 

 long, the suture between them equaling the suture between 

 prefrontals ; latter larger than internasals, bending down on 

 sides, wider than deep; frontal broadly angled anteriorly, less 

 than one and one-third times as long as broad, longer than its 

 distance from end of snout, as long as or minutely shorter than 

 parietals; latter longer than wide, touching superior postocular; 

 nasal large, with nostril very small, pierced near its center; 

 loreal very large, nearly twice as long as wide, entering eye; 

 no preocular (or, if present, fused with supraocular) ; 3 post- 

 oculars, subequal in size; 2 anterior temporals with the formula 



1_L2 '^'^' "^ upper labials, third and fourth entering eye; labials 

 ♦There ai-e no apical pits in Dnjucala mux pliilippiiins Griffiin. E. H. T, 



