■J? QH 1 B4X NH 9, pp. 77-90 23 April 1975 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON A RECONSIDERATION OF SOME CUBAN TROPIDOPHIS (SERPENTES, BOIDAE) ,7^ By Albert Schwartz and Orlando H. Garrido Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, Florida 33167 and Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, Instituto de Zoologia, La Habana, Cuba The most recent treatment of the small Cuban members of the bold genus Tropidophis is that of Schwartz and Marsh (1960). They recognized four species of these multispotted boas: pardalis Gundlach, 1840; mnculatus Bibron, 1840; pilsbryi Bailey, 1937; nigriventris Bailey, 1937. In addition to these species, Cuba also is inhabited by other, either larger or quite differently patterned, Tropidophis: melanurus Schlegel, 1837; semicinctus Gundlach and Peters, 1865; wrighti Stull, 1938, feicki Schwartz, 1957. Schwartz and Marsh (1960: 72-74) also discussed four questionable Cuban specimens in American collections; one of these they assigned to Tropido-phis canus Cope (a species that is otherwise Bahamian; the presumed Cuban specimen may be mislabeled as to prove-nance). The three remaining snakes Schwartz and Marsh considered representative of Tropidophis haetianus Cope, a widespread Hispaniolan species which had not been previ-ously reported from Cuba. Thus, Cuba has at least nine spe-cies of Tropidophis, whereas no other Antillean island with these small boas (Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Navassa Island, Bahama Islands, Caicos Islands) has more than one species. Through the efforts of the junior author, specimens from various collections in Cuba have gradually been assembled in the Instituto de Zoologia (IZ), Academia de Ciencias de Cuba. As this material accumulated, Garrido felt that addi-9— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 88, 1975 (77)
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