130 
P. A. RAWLINSON 
tern. The tiger snake maxilla has three to six 
tooth loci following the fang, agreeing with 
Peters’ description of four teeth; the gap separ¬ 
ating the last tooth can be interpreted as an 
empty alveolus rather than a true absence. 
As Peters’ description of the colour fits the 
tiger snakes of southern Queensland, New South 
Wales, Victoria and southeastern South Aus¬ 
tralia, it seems reasonable, and in view of the 
species’ medical importance, highly desirable, to 
continue to apply the name N. scutatus to the 
tiger snakes of this area. Accordingly, specimen 
NMV D47618, a male, is hereby designated as 
neotype. The specimen was collected at "The 
Brothers”, 10 km NE of Benambra, Victoria (36° 
56' S, 147° 45' E) by P. A. Rawlinson, A. J. Cov¬ 
entry and P. B. Mather on 27 January 1976. 
The neotype has the following taxonomically 
important characteristics. Midbody scale rows 
19. Ventrals 172. Anal single. Subcaudals 57, 
entire. Frontal almost as wide as broad. Head 
uniform olive brown above. Neck and forebody 
olive brown with indistinct darker brown cross 
bands, more noticeable laterally than dorsally. 
Dark bands about 3 scales wide, the lighter inter¬ 
spaces about 2 scales wide. Posterior to this, 
the dark colour becomes predominant, and the 
lighter colour is confined to the edges of the 
scales of the interspaces of the banded pattern. 
Lower labials, throat and belly bright yellow, 
darkening to olive yellow posteriorly and to pale 
olive subcaudally. Snout-vent length 846 mm, 
tail 172 mm. 
Notechis ater (Krefft, 1866) 
Hoplocephalus ater Krefft 1866: 373. 
Hoplocephalus fuscus Steindachner 1867: 82. 
Alecto fasciolata Jan & Sordelli 1873: liv. 43, pi. 6, 
fig. 4. 
Notechis scutatus .—Boulengcr 1896: 351 (in part). 
Notechis ater .—Kinghorn 1921: 143.—Rawlinson 
1967: 215.—Cogger et al. 1983: 229. 
Notechis scutatus niger Kinghorn 1921: 145. 
Notechis scutatus ater .—Kellaway & Thomson 
1932: 35-48. 
Notechis scutatus occidentalis Glauert 1948: 139.— 
Storr 1982: 235. 
Notechis ater ater .—Worrell 1963b: 130. 
Notechis ater serventyi Worrell 1963c: 3. 
Notechis ater hwnphreysi Worrell 1963c: 5. 
Specimens examined. 74. 
Scalation. Scales around midbody 15 (5), 17 
(58), 19 (10), 21 (1). Ventral scales 135-184. 
Anal scale entire. Subcaudal scales 31-59, all 
single. The head shield is very similar to that of 
N. scutatus but intraspecific variation seems 
greater in this species. Supralabials 6 (5). Figures 
can be found in Kinghorn (1921, 1929, 1956) 
Kellaway & Thomson (1932), Tubb (1938). 
Glauert (1957) Worrell (1963c) and Cogger 
(1986). 
Colour. Variable, jet black, slate grey or dark 
brown dorsal scales, usually with lighter cross¬ 
bands which are more visible on the anterior half 
of the body. The bands are narrower than in N. 
scutatus (20 mm or less). Sharland (1962) re¬ 
ported that some Tasmanian specimens are ash 
grey or light sandy in colour with no trace of 
bands. The ventral scales are lighter than the 
dorsal scales. Sharland (1962) and Glauert 
(1948) recorded that some Tasmanian and 
Western Australian specimens have yellow 
anterior ventral scales and crossbands. 
Schwaner (1984) has commented on reddish- 
bellied black tiger snakes from Kangaroo Island 
which had been confused with Pseudechis 
porphyriacus (Shaw, 1794). Subcaudals are 
usually darker than the ventrals. 
Remarks. Hoplocephalus ater , described by 
Krefft (1866) on the basis of a single specimen 
(AM 6577) from the Flinders Ranges, South 
Australia, was placed in synonymy with Nole- 
chis scutatus by Boulenger (1896). Kinghorn 
(1921) reinstated Kreflft’s species, placing it in 
Notechis and redescribing the type specimen as 
the original description was inaccurate. King¬ 
horn also described a single specimen from 
Kangaroo Island, South Australia as a new sub¬ 
species, Notechis scutatus niger , which re¬ 
sembled N. ater but was distinguished by the 
presence of six instead of five supralabials. 
Kinghorn noted that in coloration and form, the 
new subspecies most closely resembled Tasman¬ 
ian tiger snakes. Kellaway & Thomson (1932) 
identified a series of 49 snakes from Chappell 
Island in the Furneaux Group, Bass Strait as N. 
scutatus niger , describing and illustrating the 
variations in head and chin shields and supra¬ 
labials, and stating that the variation overlapped 
Kinghorn’s descriptions of N. scutatus niger and 
N. ater. They therefore reduced N. ater to sub¬ 
specific ranking as N. scutatus ater. 
Worrell (1963b) reported the discovery of 
three new specimens of N. ater in the Flinders 
Ranges, stating that, as all had six supralabials, 
the type was aberrant. He referred to this taxon 
as N. ater ater and listed Kinghorn’s N. scutatus 
niger as a subspecies of ater. As Kinghorn’s sep¬ 
aration of niger from ater on the number of 
supralabials is invalid, and as Kellaway & 
