fe, one specimen
from Dos Aguas (UMMZ 119451) had a cream-colored belly; the edges of the
ventrals were dark brick-red.

In Michoacan this snake inhabits pine-oak, pine, and fir forests at
elevations between 1550 and 2800 meters in the Cordillera Volcanica and
the Sierra de Coalcoman. Most specimens were found beneath rocks; the
one from Tzitzio was removed from the stomach of a Mexican Motmot
(Anderson, 1960:66).

~Thamnophis dorsalis cyclides~ Cope

_Thamnophis cyrtopsis cyclides_ Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
Philadelphia, 13:299, December 28, 1861.--Cape San Lucas,
Baja California (in error). Type locality restricted to
Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor
(1950a:330). Smith, Copeia, no. 2:140, June 8, 1951.
Milstead, Texas Jour. Sci., 5:368, September, 1953.

_Thamnophis eques eques_ (_nec._ Reuss), Smith, Zoologica,
27:106, October 23, 1942. Bogert and Oliver, Bull. Amer.
Mus. Nat. Hist., 83:356, March 30, 1945.

_Thamnophis vicinus_ Smith, Zoologica, 27:104, October 23,
1942.--Temazcal, Michoacan, Mexico.

_Thamnophis dorsalis cyclides_, Fitch and Milstead, Copeia,
no. 1:112, March 17, 1961.

Barolosa; Coalcoman; Dos Aguas (3); Los Reyes; Morelia (16);
Opopeo; Pino Gordo; Tacicuaro (16); Tancitaro (14);
Tangamandapio (2); Temazcal (2); Tzintzuntzan; Uruapan.

The snakes comprising the former _Thamnophis eques_-group have undergone
extensive taxonomic and nomenclatural shuffling by Smith (1942 and
1951), Bogert and Oliver (1945), Milstead (1953), and Fitch and Milstead
(1961). Smith recognized in Michoacan three members of the _T. eques_ (=
_dorsalis_) complex: _eques eques_, _eques postremus_, and _vicinus_.
Later, Smith (1951) showed that the specific name _eques_ had been
misapplied, so that _T. eques eques_ became _T. cyrtopsis cyclides_, and
_T. eques postremus_ became _T. cyrtopsis postremus_; under this
arrangement _T. vicinus_ stood unchanged. In the meantime, Bogert and
Oliver (1945:359) presented a reinterpretation of Smith's data and
suggested that _T. vicinus_, which differs from _T. dorsalis cyclides_
only in lacking a middorsal stripe, "... is not a species, but only a
pattern phase, possibly a simple mutant of _T. e. eques_" (= _T.
dorsalis cyclides_, by present arrangement). Milstead (1953) agreed with
Bogert and Oliver on the status of _T. vicinus_; furthermore, on the
basis of only a few spec