OCR Text |
Show 130 DR. A. GUNTHER ON REPTILES AND [Feb. 20, ascending on the sides. Specimens from Ceram and Amboyna show generally a light colour. To this species I refer now the following Snakes, described by various authors :- 1837. Lycodon modestus, Schleg. Essai ii. p. 119; from Amboyna. 1854. Lycodon modestum and L. lividum, Dum. & Bibr. pp. 380 and 381 ; from Amboyna and Pulo Samao. 1861. Ablabes greineri, Bleeker, Rept. of Amboyna ; from Amboyna. 1861. Coronella rosenberyii, Bleeker, Rept. of Ceram; from Ceram. 1863. Lielaphis holochrous, Gunther, P. Z. S. p. 59; from Ceram. 1874. Lycodon aruensis, Doria, Ann. Mus. Gen. p. 352; from the Aru Islands. The specimens which I have examined are from Ceram, Mysol, and Amboyna ; and they differ less among each other than the two specimens from the Duke-of-York Island. Both have a syncrante-rian dentition (ten teeth) ; but one has eight upper labials, all the subcaudals divided, and 197 ventrals ; the other has seven upper labials, 180 ventrals, and, singularly enough, only the first two and the last nineteen subcaudals divided, the sixty-three middle ones being entire. Other species belong to the same genus, and one or the other may eventually prove to be identical with the one described, viz.: - Lielaphis batjanensis, Gthr., from Batjan. Zamenophis australis, Gthr., from Cape York, with which Lycodon keyensis of Doria, from the Key Islands, appears to be identical. Lycodon parvus, Meyer, from Jobi. TROPIDONOTUS HYPOMELAS, sp. n. Body very slender; head moderately long and deep ; eye large ; Fig. I. Head of Tropidonotus hypomchts. |