Zoology.'] 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. 



[Reptiles. 



Plate 12. 



ACANTHOPHIS ANTAECTICA (Shaw sp.). 

 The Death Adder. 



[Genus ACANTHOPHIS (Daud.). (Sub-kingd. Vertebrata. Class Reptilia. Order 

 Ophidia. Fam. Viperidse ?) 



Gen. Char. — Head large, broad, flat, wider than the neck behind, with very prominent 

 superciliary ridges over the eyes. Neck narrow ; body short, thick ; tail short, with a trigonal 

 section at base, but becoming very slender, and compressed towards the posterior end, with a 

 recurved thorn-like spine, directed obliquely upwards at the extremity. Nostril large, between 

 two rostral plates ; no loreal plate ; one large anterior longitudinally-grooved ocular plate, and 

 two posterior ocular plates ; two small subocular plates below the eye and over the 3rd and 4th 

 labials. Rostral and two anterior frontals moderate, anterior ocular forming part of upper 

 surface ; vertex plate hexagonal or subpentagonal, one-third or one-fourth longer than wide ; 

 labials large, seven or eight below, six above, with a large temporal plate between the two hinder 

 (5th and 6th) ; subcaudal plates in one row till near the narrow end. Scales of back keeled, 

 most distinctly so in the anterior part, the keel becoming obsolete towards the hinder end. Eye 

 small, pupil elliptical, erect. Teeth : — Fangs very large, perforated, fixed, 2 or 3 small teeth 

 close behind each ; no other teeth in upper jaw ; two long rows of teeth on the palate bones ; 

 solid teeth of lower jaw small. Confined to Australasia.] 



Description. — Body short, thick, rounded. Scales: plates on hinder part 

 of head irregularly indented, grooved, and ridged, like large imbricating scales ; 

 scales on neck and anterior part of back strongly keeled, on hinder part of body 

 larger, rounder, and thinner than in front. Color : dull greyish-brown, with about 

 40 darker brown transverse bands ; tip of tail dull orange-yellow ; ventral and sub- 

 caudal plates paler and blotched with blackish ; labial and chin shields beautifully 

 marked with blackish-brown marks, leaving the edges cream colored, the upper 

 labials often minutely dotted with black and pink, the lower labials with the middle 

 portion occupied by a dark blotch, approximately following- the outline, but leaving 

 a broad cream-color margin. One or two of the lateral rows of scales usually 

 cream-color, and with a black blotch in the middle of the base ; the small scales of 

 the throat have each a small dark spot in the middle. 





Scales of Back. 



Plates. 



Length. 



Specimens. 



Across 

 Middle. 



Over Base 

 of Tail. 



Abdomen. 



Tail. 



Total. 



Tail. 



1 



2 



21 

 21 



17 



17 



119 

 119 



24{1 

 24{§ 



ft. in. 

 2 8* 



1 9-1 



in. 

 4 



3f 



Specimens of about 2 feet long are about 2 inches in diameter. 



Reference.— Wagler. Syst. 172. Boa antarctica, Shaw. Misc., t. 35. Vipera 

 acanthophis, Schlegel. P. S., t. 21, f. 21, 23. A. cerastinus Lacep. An. Mus. ; v. 4, 10. 

 A. Browni Leach. Zool. Misc., v. 1, t. 35. 



en ] 



