REVlSIOlir OF THE KING SNAKES. 



119 



scales are lighter and the belly is apt to be very light, due to a fading 

 of the small quadrate dark spots. This darkening and striping seems 

 to progress with age. Its beginnings may be detected in specimens 

 that still show the normal pattern sharpl}^ defined. These darkened 

 individuals seem to come chiefly from the region from eastern Mis- 

 souri to Indiana. 



The copulatory organ (fig. 2) is bilobed; the sulcus single, extend- 

 ing over the longer lobe and ending in a smooth area on the distal 

 end of the shorter lobe; calyces best developed on the longer lobe, 

 strictly apical, barely shov/ing in a side view of the fully distended 



Fig. 40.— Color pattern op Lampropeltis calligaster (U.S.N.M. no. 61726, Jerseyville, Jersey 

 County, Illinois), showing the striped effect commonly exhibited by dark individuals. About 



li XiNAT. SIZE. 



organ; fringes few and short; spines short and stout, increasing 

 gradually in size to a little more than a third of the way to the base, 

 stopping suddenly; minute spines may succeed the large ones for a 

 f ew|millimeters ; basal portion of organ smooth. 



The skull is very similar to that in the geiulus group, and to that of 

 rhombomaculata. Maxillary teeth, 12 to 14, usually 13 or 14, sub- 

 equal, the anterior and posterior ones slightly smaller than those 

 in the middle; mandibular teeth 13 or 14, the posterior smallest, 

 the fourth to seventh largest; palatines subequal, larger than the 

 pterygoids, 9, 10, or 11 in number; pterygoids 12 to 19, most com- 

 monly 16. 



