Fig. 4. Selected locality records for Conophis pulcher and Conophis nevermanni.
Remarks.—Taylor (1955:563-565) hesitantly referred a specimen (KU 35630) from 32 kilometers north of Barranca, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica, to Conophis lineatus nevermanni. This specimen, a female, has 169 ventrals and ventral scale-reduction taking place opposite the 109th ventral; both of these characters are well out of the range of C. nevermanni. Furthermore, the ventral margins of the supralabials are brown, and the pale dorsal stripes are tan and too wide for C. nevermanni (compare [figs. 1, C and E]). The specimen definitely is C. lineatus dunni, and corresponds well with another specimen from Costa Rica (ANSP 12232).
The dark brown or black dorsum with two or four white stripes and the presence of eight supralabials having dark brown dorsal margins, in combination with the characters of the genus, serve to distinguish Conophis nevermanni from other Central American snakes.
Distribution.—Pacific coastal plain of northwestern Costa Rica and the Meseta Central of central Costa Rica ([fig. 4]).
Specimens examined.—Total of six, as follows: Costa Rica: Guanacaste: Bebedero, Río Tenorio, NMW 16838(5). "San José," ANSP 22424.
Tomodon lineatus (in part), Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 28:455, 1860.
Conophis pulcher Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 20(5):308, 1869; 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, 2:646-648, pl. 38, fig. 6, 1886; Ferrai-Perez, Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., p. 196, September 28, 1886; Cope, Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus., 32:77, 1887; Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., 18:194, April 15, 1895; Ann. Rept. U. S. Natl. Mus. for 1898, p. 1095, 1900; Alvarez del Toro, Reptiles de Chiapas, pp. 154-155, 1960.