138 BULLETIN 114, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



LAMPKOPELTIS LEONIS (GUnther). 



1893. Coronella leonis Gunther, Biol. Cent. Amer., Kept, and Batr., p. IIO, 

 pi. 39, fig. A (type locality, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; ty]3e in British Mu- 

 seum; W. Taylor, collector). — Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., 

 vol. 2, 1894, p. 199. 



Description. — As this form is known only from the type speci- 

 men, the originpJ description is here quoted in full : 



Scales in 23 rows, without pit, smooth; head similar to that of Coronella laevis] 

 anterior frontals not quite half the size of posterior; vertical 5-sided, with the lateral 

 margins convergent; 1 praeocular not reaching the vertical; 2 postoculars; loreal 

 longer than deep; 7 upper labials, the third and fourth entering the orbit; temporals 

 2+3, of the 2 anterior only the upper one is in contact with the postoculars. Ventrals 

 200; anal entire; subcaudals 50. Body pale olive-color on the back, with 27 salmon- 

 colored incompletely black-edged spots, some being of a transversely oval shape, but 

 the majority presenting the appearance of being formed of 2 rounded portions. On the 

 tail the spots lose their light center and appear merely as brown spots. The lateral 

 spots which are so conspicuous in most variations of Coronella triangulum are here 

 nearly entirely absent. Vertical and each occipital with a black spot, red in the 

 center; abdomen with only a few blackish blotches irregularly scattered. A black 

 band along the middle of the lower part of the tail. The single specimen measured 

 23^ inches, the tail 3| inches. This snake may be considered to be one of the aberrant 

 forms of Coro7iella triangulum. 



Remojv'ks. — The description is incomplete in some respects, a^nd 

 the type specimen has not been available for examination. If, as 

 stated above, scale pits are actually absent, in which case other 

 distinctive differences will almost certainly be found, the specimen 

 can hardly be a Lampropeltis, but an error may easily have been 

 made on this point. Further examples must be obtained before the 

 status of this form can be stated with assurance. But from the 

 description and excellent figure, it appears to be a distinct form 

 closely allied to the other members of the calligaster group. Further 

 discussion, however, is hardly profitable at present. 



SUMMARY. 



The handicap of insufficient material has been more than usually 

 acute in the study of this group. 



The intimate relationship existing between rhombomaculata and 

 calligaster and the fact that the former is a derivative by reduction 

 of the latter need not here be more than recalled, after the discus- 

 sions already given under Variation and Affinities of these forms. 



That leonis is a member of the group must be allowed, pending 

 further knowledge of the form. 



We may therefore express the relations of the forms of the calli- 

 gaster group, diagramatically, as follows: 



leonis calligaster >r7io7nbomaculata 



The Atlantic States — the "'Southeast" — may therefore be excluded 

 from consideration as a possible center of origin or dispersal of this 

 group. 



