Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A species of the genus Amphiesma characterized by (1) a dark dorsal background in life, dark reddish-brown or probably dark chestnut-brown in life, turning to cream, grey, pinkish-grey, tan, more or less dark greyish-brown or dark yellowish-grey in preservative, (2) on each side, a conspicuous brown or reddish-brown (cream, pale greyish-brown or pale yellowish-brown in preservative) dorsolateral stripe, narrowly edged on its both sides with dark brown or black, extending on the 5th–7th dorsal scale rows from the occipital region along the whole of the body, (3) many dorsal scales longitudinally edged with dark brown, especially on the lower part of the sides, producing a faint reticulation or irregular streaks, (4) upper edge of scales of the 1st dorsal scale row and lower edge of those of 2nd row blackish-brown, producing a very irregular ventrolateral stripe, (5) a rather narrow, irregular, blackish-brown postocular streak extending from behind the eye to the corner of the mouth, usually separated by a wide gap from the dark line edging the lower side of the dorsolateral stripe, (6) no chevron on the upper part of the neck, (7) supralabials mostly uniform, not (or barely) spotted, (8) venter uniformly cream, beige or yellowish-brown, with the outer edge of ventral tips blackish-brown, (9) 21–22 maxillary teeth, the last two moderately enlarged and separated from anterior teeth by a distinct diastema, (10) 19–19–17 dorsal scale rows, (11) dorsal scales moderately to strongly keeled on 2nd–9th dorsal and vertebral scale rows, smooth or at best feebly keeled 1st dorsal row, (12) tail moderate, proportion tail length / total length 0.221–0.252 (0.239–0.252 in males, 0.221–0.249 in females), (13) 160–173 ventrals, (14) 63–77 subcaudals, (15) anal plate divided, (16) usually 2 preoculars, and (17) 1 or 2 anterior temporals [David et al. 2015). |
References |
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