BREVIORA Museimi of Comniparsitive Zoology Cambridge, Mass. February 15, 1965 Number 215 TWO NEW SUBSPECIES OF AMPHISBAENA (AMPHIS-BAENIA, REPTILIA) FROM THE BARAHONA PENIN-SULA OF HISPANIOLA By RicHAED Thomas^ As a result of collecting sponsored and led by Dr. Albert Schwartz during the summers of 1963 and 1964 in which I was fortunate to be able to participate, 33 specimens of Amphishaena were collected in the low areas on and near the Barahona Penin-sula of the Dominican Republic. The general affinities of these specimens are with Amphishacna innocens Weinland. Compari-son of the Barahona Peninsula specimens with representatives of the forms assigned to the species innocens shows them to be distinct in themselves, but to resemble most closely A. i. gona-vensis Gans and Alexander. These authors, in their recent study of West Indian amphisbaenids (1962), examined the available Hispaniolan specimens and reviewed the forms. The combina-tion AmpJiisbaena innocens caudalis Cochran was first used by them, and the new name Amphishaena i7inoce7is gonavensis was proposed for the population on Gonave Island. Fourteen addi-tional specimens of gonavensis, recently acquired by Dr. Ernest Williams, allow a better comparison of the Gonave and Bara-hona populations than was possible previously. Although the differences between the two populations are perhaps on a level of specific separation, their relationship with one another is ob-vious. I feel that relationships are best expressed by regarding these two as conspecific and distinct from A. innocens. These related amphisbaenids of Gonave Island and the Barahona Peninsula should therefore be known as Amphishacna gonaven-sis Gans and Alexander. In lacking major fusion of the head scales, Amphishaena gonavensis is separable from all other West Indian Amphis-haena except innocens Weinland, caeca Cuvier, hakeri Stejneger 1 10,000 S. W. 84th street, Miami, Florida .33143
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