Amphibians and Reptiles of the Rainforests of Southern El Peten, Guatemala Part 8

=Stenorrhina degenhardti= (Berthold)

Chinaja, 1.

This specimen, a female having 158 ventrals, 37 caudals, and a total length of 489 mm., was found on the forest floor. On the olive-brown dorsum are 27 irregular, narrow, dark brown, transverse bands. The head is uniform olive-brown; the chin and l.a.b.i.als are cream-color. The venter is cream-color with a row of brown spots forming a midventral stripe. A large spider was found in the stomach.

I have refrained from a.s.signing a subspecific name to this snake.

Cursory examination of specimens from throughout Mexico and Central America reveals a bewildering array of variation in coloration that suggests that the subspecies _mexica.n.u.s_ is not recognizable, or that two species occur sympatrically in parts of southern Mexico and northern Central America.

=Tretanorhinus nigroluteus lateralis= Bocourt

Chinaja, 1.

A single male having 136 ventrals, 75 caudals, and a total length of 407 mm. was found by a stream in camp. The dorsum is pale grayish tan with 34 pairs of small chocolate brown spots, some of the anterior ones of which are connected across the back. A cream-colored lateral stripe is on the third and fourth dorsal scale-rows anteriorly and the second and third rows posteriorly. The lower dorsal scale rows are black. The venter is dark grayish brown with cream-colored flecks anteriorly and creamy gray posteriorly where the dark color is restricted to the midventral region and the lateral edges of ventrals and first dorsal scale-row.

=Xenodon rabdocephalus mexica.n.u.s= Smith

Chinaja, 1; 20 km. NNW of Chinaja, 1.

Both individuals were found on the forest floor. An adult male having a total length of 420 mm. has a cream-colored venter with brown flecks. A juvenile having a total length of 172 mm. has a creamy white belly with black crossbands.

At the suggestion of L. C. Stuart, I am following Schmidt (1941:501) in placing _X. mexica.n.u.s_ as a subspecies of _X. rabdocephalus_.

=Micrurus affinis apiatus= (Jan)

20 km. NNW of Chinaja, 2; Sayaxche, 1.

All specimens were found beneath litter on the forest floor. All are males having 202 to 211 (average 205) ventrals, 53 to 56 (54.6) caudals, and 34 to 48 (41) primary black rings on the body. There are no yellow rings, and black spots in the red inters.p.a.ces tend to form secondary black rings (Fig. 6b), the same as in _Pliocercus euryzonus aequalis_.

The local name is _coral_ or _coralillo_.

=Bothrops atrox asper= (Garman)

15 km. NW of Chinaja, 1; Sayaxche, 1.

Although we found only two specimens, natives and workmen at the camp at Chinaja stated that the _barba amarilla_, as this snake is known locally, had been abundant when the camp had been established less than two years before our visit.

=Bothrops nasutus= Bocourt

12 km. NW of Chinaja, 1.

This specimen, a male having a total length of 415 mm., was found on the forest floor. The dorsum is brown with dark brown blotches separated middorsally by a narrow orange-tan stripe extending from the nape to the base of the tail. The belly is grayish tan with white flecks on the lateral edges of the ventrals. The local name is _nahuyaca_.

=Bothrops nummifer nummifer= (Ruppell)

15 km. NW of Chinaja, 2; Sayaxche, 1.

Two individuals were found on the forest floor, and one adult, having a total length of 953 mm., was removed from the stomach of a large _Drymarchon corais melanurus_. There is considerable variation in color and pattern. A juvenile (KU 58104), having a total length of 332 mm., has a tan dorsum with 19 interconnected dark brown, diamond-shaped, middorsal blotches, the lateral extensions of which are black; the belly is a cream-color with brown squares. An adult female (KU 55706), having a total length of 779 mm., has a dorsal coloration like the preceding specimen, except that the lateral extensions of the dorsal blotches are brown; the belly is a uniform cream-color. A second adult female (KU 55707), having a total length of 953 mm., has a brown dorsum with 21 interconnected black, diamond-shaped, middorsal blotches, the lateral extensions of which are black; the belly is a cream-color with black squares.

The local name for this species is _braza de piedra_.

=Bothrops schlegeli schlegeli= (Berthold)

Paso Subin, 1.

This specimen was taken from the thatched roof of a house at the edge of the forest and contained the remains of a small mammal. The local name is _nahuyaca_.

HYPOTHETICAL LIST OF SPECIES

Listed below are thirteen species that have not been found in southern El Peten but that probably occur there.

=_Dermophis mexica.n.u.s mexica.n.u.s_= (Dumeril and Bibron).--Natives at Chinaja know caecilians, which they call _dos cabezas_.

This species has been taken in Tabasco and northern Chiapas.

Its occurrence in southern El Peten is expected. Less likely, the caecilian known to the natives at Chinaja is _Gymnopis oligozona_, which is known from Finca Volcan on the southern slopes of the valley of the Rio Cahabon in Alta Verapaz.

=_Gastrophryne elegans_= (Boulenger).--This small fossorial frog is known from Piedras Negras (Taylor and Smith, 1945:604), 12 miles east of Yaxha (Stuart, 1934:7), and Tikal (Stuart, 1958:18), all in northern and central El Peten. Two specimens in the collection of the University of Kansas are from 28 kilometers northeast of Campur, Alta Verapaz. Probably the species ranges throughout the forested lowlands of northern Alta Verapaz and El Peten.

=_Mabuya brachypoda_= Taylor.--The absence of this widespread lizard in our collections cannot be explained. Probably it occurs in southern El Peten, for it is known in northern and central El Peten and in Alta Verapaz.

=_Dendrophidion vinitor_= Smith.--This snake is known from Piedras Negras, El Peten and from various localities in Alta Verapaz; it is an inhabitant of humid forest and should occur in southern El Peten.

=_Elaphe triaspis mutabilis_= (Cope).--The subspecies _E.

triaspis mutabilis_ is known from Alta Verapaz and _E.

triaspis triaspis_ from the Yucatan Peninsula, British Honduras, and Uaxactun in northern El Peten. Because of the much higher degree of resemblance between the faunas of southern El Peten and Alta Verapaz as compared with southern El Peten and Yucatan, _E. triaspis mutabilis_ would be expected to occur in southern El Peten.

=_Ninia diademata nietoi_= Burger and Werler.--This snake is known from Tikal and from Alta Verapaz; it is a small cryptophile that probably occurs in southern El Peten.

=_Oxyrhophus petola aequifasciatus_= Werner.--This snake, which probably is conspecific with _Oxyrhophus baileyi_ in southern Veracruz, Mexico, is known from Tikal, British Honduras, and Alta Verapaz; it is expected in southern El Peten.

=_Pliocercus elapoides salvini_= Muller.--This species is widespread in the Atlantic lowlands of southern Mexico and northern Central America; the subspecies _P. elapoides salvini_ occurs in Alta Verapaz and probably in southern El Peten.

=_Rhadinaea decorata decorata_= (Gunther).--This is another small cryptophile that is widespread on the Atlantic lowlands from Mexico to Panama; it definitely is expected at places like Chinaja in southern El Peten.

=_Scaphiodontophis annulatus_= (Dumeril and Bibron).--Three subspecies of _Scaphiodontophis annulatus_ are recognized in northern Central America: _S. annulatus annulatus_ from Alta Verapaz, _S. annulatus hondurensis_ from northern Honduras, and _S. annulatus carpicinctus_ from Piedras Negras and Tikal in El Peten and from British Honduras. This rare and highly variable species probably occurs in southern El Peten.

=_Tantilla schistosa schistosa_= (Bocourt).--This widespread species in Central America is known from several localities in Alta Verapaz and almost certainly occurs in southern El Peten.

=_Tropidodipsas sartori sartori_= Cope.--This fossorial species has been collected in northern El Peten and in Alta Verapaz.

The natives at Chinaja described to me a _coral_ having orange rings on a black body that likely was this species.