44 



COLVDB.IDM. 



frontal; two or three postooulars ; temporals 2+2 or 3 ; eight 

 upper labials, fourth and fifth entering the eye ; five lower labials 

 in contact with the anterior chin-shields ; posterior chin-shields 

 very small or absent. Scales in 23 or 25 rows. Ventrals 251- 

 265; anal entire; subcaudals 159, single. Greenish yeUow or 

 orange above, with small black spots or rather indistinct dark 

 green cross-bars ; a series of larger blackish spots along the spine ; 

 head bright yellow, spotted or marbled with blackish ; a large 

 black nuchal spot ; yellow beneath, tail (in the male) with black 

 spots. 



Total length 1098 miUim. ; tail (injured) 260. 



Madagascar. 



a-b. c? (Sc. 23 ; V. 261 ; 0. ?) Madagascar. 



&yg. (So. 26; V. 265; 0.169). 



8. Stenophis betsileanus. (Piate IV. fig. 4.) 

 Dipsaa betsileana, Giinth. Ann. ^ Mag. JSf. H. (5) vi. 1880, p. 238. 



Eostral broader than deep, just visible from above ; internasals 

 Tsroader than long, a little longer than the prsefrontals ; frontal 

 once and one third as long as broad, longer than its distance from 

 the end of the snout, shorter than the parietals ; loreal longer than 

 deep, entering the eye below the prseocxilar, which is widely 

 separated from the frontal; two postoculars; temporals l-(-2; 

 seven upper labials, third and fourth entering the eye ; five lower 

 labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields ; posterior chin- 

 shields shorter than the anterior, in contact with each other. Scales 

 in 23 rows. Ventrals 226 ; anal divided ; subcaudals 106 pairs. 

 Black, with yellowish- white annuli, widening on the belly ; some 

 of the annuli interrupted and alternating on the back ; upper 

 labials and throat yellowish white ; a yellowish-white bar across 

 the snout. 



Total length 400 millim. ; tail 90. 



Madagascar. 



a. Yg. (V. 226 ; 0. 106). S.E. Betsileo. (Type.) 



141. LTCODRYAS. 

 Lycodryas, Gunth. Ann. Sf Mag. N. H. (5) iii. 1879, p. 218. 



Maxillary teeth 12 or 13, anterior longest, followed, after a short 

 interspace, by an enlarged, grooved fang ; anterior palatine and 

 mandibular teeth longest. Head very distinct from neck ; eye 

 rather large, with vertical pupil. Body much elongate, compressed ; 

 scales smooth, with apical pits, in 19 rows ; ventrals angulate 

 laterally. Tail long; anterior subcaudals single, rest divided. 

 Hypapophyses developed throughout the vertebral column. 



Comoro Islands. 



