DIBAMUS 261 



DIBAMUS ARGENTEUS Taylor 



Dibamus argenteus Taylor, Philip. Journ. Sci. § D 10 (1915) 107, 

 pi. 1, figs. 11, 12; 12 (1917) 379; 13 (1918) 257. 



Description of species. — (From the type, No. 1691, Bureau of 

 Science collection ; collected at Butuan, Agusan, Mindanao, May, 

 1913, by E. H. Taylor.) Body wormlike; snout covered with a 

 single large rostral shield; nostril pierced near anterior part 

 of snout with a suture issuing from it, continuing back, first 

 curved and then as a straight line, to edge of rostral at point 

 opposite eye; frontal shaped like a double convex lens, forming 

 curved sutures with rostral and interparietal, in contact laterally 

 with ocular; interparietal larger than frontal, rather convex on 

 anterior side, bordered laterally by oculars and postoculars, be- 

 hind by five body scales; oculars elongate, eye discernible; a 

 single enlarged scale follows rostral above angle of jaws ; mental 

 narrow, longer than wide ; one lower labial on each side extending 

 back farther than rostral; a single, slightly enlarged scale fol- 

 lowing mental; two small, vertically elongate scales behind first 

 lower labial, bordering first upper labial below; scales on snout 

 and lower jaw noticeably thickened; twenty-four scale rows 

 around body; 250 scales in a longitudinal row from head to 

 tail; scales bordering anus very small, but preceded by two or 

 three enlarged scales ; forty scales in a line from anus to tip of 

 tail ; tail blunt, its length contained in length from snout to vent 

 6.36 times. 



Color in life. — Light chocolate brown above and below, with 

 two irregular blotches of silver gray, which encircle the body; 

 anal region creamy white ; frontal plate silvery ; rostral, mental, 

 and lower labials light. 



Measurements of Dibamus argenteus Taylor. 



mm. 



Total length 125 



Snout to vent 108 

 Tail 17 



Width of head 4.5 



Variation. — Four other specimens have been found and re- 

 ferred to this species since the type was discovered. Two of 

 these are from Negros; the third from Papahag, Sulu, and the 

 fourth from the coast of Borneo, near Tunku Point. The Negros 

 specimens differ from the typical form in having the rostral 

 broken in three scales and forming a large upper labial on 

 either side posterior to nostril ; there are two postoculars instead 



