COLUBER QUATUORLINEATUS
After Werner
COLUBER QUATUORLINEATUS, VAR. SAUROMATES
After Sordelli
COLUBER DIONE
After Sordelli
Scales feebly but distinctly keeled, except on the outer rows, with two apical pits, in twenty-five (rarely twenty-three or twenty-seven) rows. Ventral shields not or but very obtusely angulate laterally, 195 to 234; anal divided; subcaudals 56 to 90.
Coloration.—Young ([Plate VI]., top) with three or five alternating longitudinal series of dark brown, black-edged spots on a yellowish, grey, or pale brown ground, the spots of the median series largest, transversely elliptical or rhomboidal; a dark streak across the forehead, black bars on the labial shields, and a black oblique streak from the eye to the angle of the mouth. In specimens from Italy and the countries bordering the Adriatic (the typical C. quatuorlineatus) the markings very gradually disappear with age, with the exception of the temporal streak, whilst a pair of black streaks appear along each side of the body, at a short distance from the head, the lower corresponding to the postocular streak, the adult being brown without spots, but four-lined ([Plate VI]., second figure). In more eastern specimens (C. sauromates, Pallas), which may be regarded as representing the original form, the markings of the young persist throughout life, or, if they disappear, they are not replaced by dark streaks ([Plate VI]., third figure). Lower parts pale yellow, closely spotted or marbled with brown, these markings usually disappearing in the adult, except on the tail. Iris dark brown.
Size.—The largest European snake, stated to reach a length of 8 feet. The largest specimen examined by me measures, however, only 41⁄2 feet.
Distribution.—Aldrovandi’s Snake inhabits Southern Italy and Sicily, Istria, Croatia, Dalmatia, Herzegovina, Greece, and eastwards to Southern Russia, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Persia. It has been observed at an altitude of 2,600 feet in Herzegovina.
All the specimens from Roumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and eastwards, belong to the var. sauromates, which is regarded by some authors as worthy of specific rank. The reported occurrence of C. quatuorlineatus in various parts of France is certainly due to confusion with C. scalaris and C. longissimus.