Conophis lineatus lineatus (Duméril, Bibron and Duméril)
Tomodon lineatum (in part) Duméril, Bibron and Duméril, Erpétologie Générale, 7(pt. 2):936-938, atlas, pl. 73, February 25, 1854; Bocourt, Journ. de Zool., 5:406-407, 1876.
Tomodon lineatus, Jan, Arch. Zool. Anat. Fis., Genoa, 2(2):234, March 1863; Elenco sistematico degli ofidi. Milano, p. 57, 1863; Muller, Reisen in den Vereinigten Staaten, Canada, und Mexico. Bd. 3. Beitrage zur Geschichte, Statistik, und Zoologie von Mexiko. 3:607, 1865; Jan and Sordelli, Iconographie Generale des Ophidiens, Milano. liv. 19, pl. 6, fig. 3, December, 1866; liv. 50, pl. 2, fig. 34, November, 1881.
Tachymenis lineata (in part), Garman, Bull. Essex Inst., 16: 33, January 9, 1884; Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., 8:60-61, July, 1884.
Conophis lineatus, Bocourt in Duméril, Bocourt and Mocquard, Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amerique Centrale, 2:643-644, pl. 38, fig. 5, 1886; Cope, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., 18:218, pl. 28, fig. 2, (hemipenis), April 15, 1895; Boulenger, Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), 3:122-123 (part), 1896; Cope, Ann. Rept. U. S. Natl. Mus. for 1898, pp. 1094-1095, 1242, pl. 26, fig. 2, (hemipenis), 1900; Amaral, Mem. Inst. Butantan, 4:212, 1929; Mittleman, Copeia, no. 2:122, June 30, 1944.
Conophis lineatus lineatus, Smith, Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., 31:122, March 15, 1941; Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., 92:395, November 5, 1942; Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., 93:407, October 29, 1943; Smith and Taylor, Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus., 187:43, October 5, 1945; Shannon and Smith, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 52:505, December 31, 1949; Smith and Taylor, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33(pt. 2):351, March 20, 1950; Werler and Smith, Texas Journ. Sci. 4(4):565, December 30, 1952; Fugler and Dixon, Herpetologica, 14:186, December 1, 1958.
Type.—Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, no. 3738. Type locality.—"México," restricted to Veracruz, Veracruz, México, by Smith and Taylor (1950:351). Little is known about the type specimen, and nothing, concerning its collector or the locality at which it was collected. Smith (1941:122) assumed that the specimen illustrated by Bocourt in Duméril, Bocourt, and Mocquard (1886:pl. 38, fig. 5) was the type of C. l. lineatus. I have also made this assumption concerning the identity of the type specimen of this species, especially because of the many inconsistencies appearing in the plate accompanying the description by Duméril, Bibron and Duméril (1854:pl. 73), and by Jan and Sordelli (1866:pl. 6). Neither show the nape nor a regular number of dorsal scales by which accurate determination of color pattern can be made and by means of which C. l. dunni and C. l. lineatus can be separated.
Diagnosis.—Lateral dark stripe anteriorly passing through eye and posteriorly involving fourth scale-row only; first scale-row darkly pigmented; no paravertebral stripe; no dark pigment on vertebral row; six or eight dark stripes at mid-body, secondary stripes often present posteriorly; usually eight (sometimes seven) supralabials immaculate or having dark ventral margins.
Variation.—Twenty-six specimens have 157 to 169 (163.5 ± 3.59) ventrals. Twenty of these snakes having complete tails have 60 to 73 (66.5 ± 4.26) subcaudals; the number of ventrals plus subcaudals varies from 224 to 238 (230.1) in nineteen of these. In 26 specimens the reduction from 19 to 17 dorsal scale-rows takes place between ventrals 91 and 107 (100.2 ± 3.59). Sexual dimorphism is evident in the number of subcaudals; nine females have 60 to 66 (62.4), and 11 males have 68 to 73 (69.8) subcaudals. The largest specimen (AMNH 19643) is a male from "México," having a body length of 626 mm., a tail length of 168 mm. and a total length of 786 mm. No small juveniles have been examined; the smallest specimen (AMNH 19618) is a male from Veracruz, México, having a body length of 325 mm., a tail length of 90 mm. and a total length of 415 mm.
The greatest variation is in coloration. In preserved specimens the ground-color is white, tannish-white, or often pale blue, with dark stripes of black or deep brown present dorsolaterally and laterally. Secondary stripes of paler brown are sometimes present, but the pale browns have faded badly on many specimens. Normally four black stripes are present at mid-body—a lateral pair on the 4th row of dorsal scales and a dorsolateral pair on the 7th row ([fig. 1, D]). The lateral pair is the posterior continuation of the stripe that on the head passes through the eye; it continues on the nape as a narrow stripe on the 4th row only. In a few specimens the lateral stripe broadens to include the upper third of the 3rd row posterior to the nape. In some specimens both the dorsolateral and lateral dark stripes are present on the nape as a row of elongated spots or dashes that become continuous stripes of even width one-third to one-half of the distance posteriorly along the body; in other specimens the stripes are continuous on the nape. Posterior to the place of dorsal scale-reduction from 19 to 17 rows by the fusion of the 3rd and 4th rows, the lateral and dorsolateral stripes are moved downward by one row. In some specimens secondary black or dark brown stripes are present in the form of a series of dashes on the 5th and 8th rows; posterior to the place of scale reduction, these dashes are on the 4th and 7th rows. These dashes form a continuous stripe near the base of the tail. On the tail the secondary and primary stripes on adjacent rows sometimes fuse into a single broader stripe.