^v ,iU BREVIORA MniseMiii of Compsirative Zoology Cambridge, Mass. May 28, 19G5 Number 222 THE GENUS LEPTOTYPHLOPS IN THE WEST INDIES WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES FROM HIS-PANIOLA (SERPENTES, LEPTOTYPHLOPIDAE) By Richard Thomas 10,000 SW 84tli St., Miami, Florida 33143 Three specimens of Leptotyphlops were collected in the summer of 1964 in the vicinity of the town of Pedernales, Dominican Republic, by Mr. David C. Leber and myself. These snakes ap-pear most closely related to L. hilineata Schlegel which they re-semble in the failure of the ocular to reach the labial border. No snakes of the genus Leptotyphlops have previously been definitely noted from the island of Hispaniola. Boulenger (1893), however, recorded a specimen of Lepto-typhlos alhifrons Wagler from Santo Domingo de Guzman col-lected by Dr. A. C. Buller. It so happens that the name of the capital city of the Dominican Republic, rarely referred to in its entirety, is Santo Domingo de Guzman. The question of the provenance and relationships of the Buller specimen might therefore be important. Thanks to Miss A. G. C. Grandison, I have been able to examine this specimen (BM 90.10.10.73) and can confirm its affinities with the alhifrons group of the genus. It appears to agree most closely with L. phenops hakewelli Oliver although the rostral-prefrontal fusion is apparently lacking. (Dunn and Saxe, 1950, regard phenops as a race of alhifrons; but I here follow more recent authors such as Peters, 1954, and Duellman, 1961, in giving phenops specific rank.) Miss A. G. C. Grandison writes (in litt.) that "Dr. Audley C. Buller . . . made quite extensive collections in Mexico in 1891 and 1892, travelling from L. [Lago] Chapala and Guadalajara ... to Bolafios and back to Ixtlan and later ... to an area west of Guadalajara." Examination of a recent map of Mexico shows that roughly 200 km to the soutli of the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco is a Ciudad Guziiuni, whicli may well he another case of the un-wieldy Santo Domingo de Guzman liaving been sliortened. Smith
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