Part 13

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 labials 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 assigning 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 mexicanus 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 mexicanus= 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. mexicanus 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 interspaces 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= (Rueppell)

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.