John Wellman

“ Every stripe originates either as broad continuous stripe or as a row of spots or dashes, forming a discontinuous stripe, which in some specimens becomes continuous posteriorly. The stripes are usually black or deep brown, although auxiliary stripes are sometimes paler. The dorsal ground color is pale brown, tan, olive, or white; usually the ground color is palest ventrally and darkest dorsally.
In some specimens of Conophis the lateral tips of the ventrals are spotted, one spot on each end of each ventral. Otherwise, the ventrals are immaculate white. ”

“ There seems to be a correlation between the type of preservation, the age of the snake, and the number of grooved teeth. Old (large) individuals always have only one grooved tooth that is rooted and functional, whereas some of the younger animals have two in place. Usually replacement teeth are present in alcoholic specimens, but these unrooted teeth are lost in the preparation of dried skeletons. Thus, it seems that in Conophis only one pair of grooved teeth is functional at any one time, although usually replacement teeth are present behind and beside the functional one. ”

“ The genus Conophis Peters, 1860, contains four species. Three are monotypic and the fourth has three subspecies, making a total of six taxa.
The genus is characterized by maxillary teeth of equal size followed by a diastema and two enlarged grooved fangs. The scales are smooth, in 19 rows at mid-body, and 17 nearer the tail. The anal is divided, apical pits are lacking, the head shields are normal for a colubrid, and the hemipenis is bilobed having many large basal spines. ”

“ Although many juveniles differ greatly in general coloration from the adults, both the juveniles and the adults of any species or subspecies can be identified from the following key; juveniles differ from adults in extent and intensity of dark pigmentation but not in rows of scales involved. ”

“ The prearticular part of this bone forms a part of Meckel's canal. In the surangular part, immediately posterior to the end of the dentary, is the large surangular foramen. Lying in a longitudinal axis along the medial surface of the articular is a high crest, dorsal to which is a deep hollow. The lateral wall of the articular above this hollow is thin and rounded dorsally; the ventral surface is uniformly round and slightly curved dorsally, except that it ends with a short tympanic crest, which projects beyond the articulation with the quadrate. ”

“ The six taxa are separated primarily on the basis of color pattern, but characters of scutellation, including numbers of dorsals, ventrals, [Pg_293] caudals, and places of reduction of the number of dorsal scale-rows, were analyzed.
Snakes of this genus are distributed throughout semi-arid environments from southern México southward into Costa Rica. They feed upon lizards, primarily of the genus Cnemidophorus; in addition they are known to eat small rodents and other snakes. ”

“ Conophis pulcher has a lateral dark stripe that includes the upper half of the second scale-row on the anterior part of the body; stripes of C. l. dunni never include more than the 3rd and 4th rows. Even as juveniles the paravertebral row is not darkly pigmented in C. l. dunni as it is in C. pulcher.
Distribution.—Semi-arid habitats from sea level to elevations of 1000 m. from the Cuilco Valley in western Guatemala, El Peten and British Honduras southeastward to northeastern and southern Honduras, western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica (fig. 2) . ”

“ Table 1.—Variation in the Place of Dorsal Scale Reduction in Conophis.
Ventrals.—The number of ventral scutes varies from 149-183, and shows no significant variation in the means (table 2) .
Subcaudals.—The number of subcaudal scutes varies from 55 to 89. In some populations there is no overlap in the range of variation of males and females. The total variation and sexual dimorphism are analyzed in table 3. ”

“ Otherwise, there is little sexual dimorphism in these snakes. Males and females cannot be differentiated by any feature of coloration.
Formulation of a biological concept of the species as defined by Mayr (1942) is difficult when most of the data primarily relied upon are from preserved specimens. Nevertheless, a total view of variation was attempted so that differences within and between populations could be recognized. Differences, between populations, [Pg_261] that seem to be part of a continuous or internal cline (Huxley, 1942) are not used for characterizing subspecies.
[Pg_262] ”

“ Copies for individuals, persons working in a particular field of study, may be obtained by addressing instead the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. There is no provision for sale of this series by the University Library, which meets institutional requests, or by the Museum of Natural History, which meets the requests of individuals. ”

“ The vomer has a thin anterior ridge that gradually disappears before it reaches the border of the premaxillary. The vomer is approximately U-shaped, when viewed from below. It has no posterior process and does not articulate with the parasphenoid; there is a sizeable gap between the two bones. The septo-maxillary has a lateral process that terminally is directed slightly anteriorly.
Fig. 6. The skull, lacking dentigerous bones, of Conophis lineatus concolor (UMMZ S-788) showing (A) dorsal, (B) lateral, and (C) ventral views. × 3. ”

“ He examined only 28 specimens, including none of one species (nevermanni) .
Description.—Hemipenis slightly bifurcate having forked sulcus spermaticus, large spines near base, and smaller spines or papillae on flounces nearer apices; prediastemal maxillary teeth 8-12, subequal in length, and followed by short diastema and one enlarged fang or two; fangs grooved, only one functional at any one time, unless snake is in process of shedding teeth; teeth 6-10 on palatine, 15 to 19 on pterygoid, 15 to 21 on dentary; teeth on dentary decreasing in size posteriorly ”

“ Smith and Taylor, Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus., 187:43, October 5, 1945; Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33 (pt. 2) :352, March 20, 1950.
Types.—Two in the United States National Museum, no. 12368 (two specimens) . Type locality: "Yucatán," restricted to Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, México by Smith and Taylor (1950:352) .
Diagnosis.—Dark stripes either absent posterior to the nape, or present as a row of small spots on fourth or seventh scale-row; no dark stripe on first scale-row; eight supralabials having dark ventral margins.
Variation.—Forty-five specimens have 158 to 170 (163.7 ± 1.56) ventrals. ”

“ Patterns of dorsal coloration at mid-body of adults of all species and subspecies of the genus Conophis except C. lineatus concolor. A. C. lineatus dunni (UMMZ 107339) from Santa Rosa, Guatemala. B. C. lineatus dunni (UMMZ 116537) from 1.5 mi. N Matagalpa, Nicaragua. C. C. lineatus dunni (ANSP 3480) from "San Jose," Costa Rica. D. C. l. lineatus (KU 23253) from Río Blanco, 20 km. WNW Piedras Negras, Veracruz, México. E. C. nevermanni (ANSP 22424) "San Jose," Costa Rica. F. C. pulcher (UIMNH 33646) from Soconusco, Chiapas, México. G. C. vittatus (KU 39626) from Atencingo, Puebla, México. ”

“ Conophis lineatus concolor Cope
Conophis vittatus Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 13:300, December 28, 1861 (nec Peters, 1860; type.—United States National Museum, no. 4941; type locality—"Petén," Guatemala) ; Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, ser. 2, 8:137, 1876; Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus., 32:76, 1887.
Conophis concolor Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 18:318-319, February 20, 1867; Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, ser. 2, 8:137, 1876; Bocourt in Duméril, Bocourt and Mocquard, Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amerique Centrale, 2:648, 1886 ”