hereby designate
as a neotype, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, No. 114668. This
specimen was collected 24 kilometers northwest of Ciudad Oaxaca, Oaxaca,
on February 29, 1956, by William E. Duellman. It is an adult female
having 229 ventrals, 67 caudals, and long black neck-stripes followed
posteriorly by 23 light-centered dorsal body-blotches.

_Diagnosis._--This subspecies is characterized by the presence of
continuous dark paravertebral stripes on the anterior part of the body,
and light-centered dorsal body-blotches and lateral intercalary spots
(Pl. 45, Fig. 2). There are 229 to 258 ventrals, 54 to 72 caudals, and
23 to 45 dorsal body-blotches posterior to the neck-stripes. The young
are colored like the adults.

_Variation._--Specimens from the southern part of the range in Oaxaca
have 229 to 245 ventrals (average 238.3); to the north on the Mexican
Plateau in the state of Michoac['a]n seven specimens have 231 to 243
(average 237.1) ventrals. In the relatively isolated mountain ranges of
the Sierra del Sur in Guerrero and the Sierra de Coalcom['a]n in
southern Michoac['a]n the ranges of variation and average numbers of
ventrals are, respectively, 234 to 258 (245.8) and 236 to 246 (242.2).
The longest neck-stripes are found in specimens from Oaxaca and
Guerrero; nevertheless, some specimens from the Mexican Plateau in
Michoac['a]n and three of the four specimens from the Sierra de
Coalcom['a]n have neck-stripes equally long. One specimen from 40
kilometers north of Ciudad M['e]xico and several from the vicinity of
Tanc['i]taro, Michoac['a]n, have rather shorter neck-stripes. One
specimen from Dos Aguas, Michoac['a]n, has the neck-stripes partially
fragmented into rows of spots as in _gibsoni_.

On the basis of specimens from Tanc['i]taro, Michoac['a]n, Schmidt and
Shannon (1947: 79) described the subspecies _brevilineata_, which they
diagnosed as differing from _lineaticollis_ in having fewer ventrals and
shorter neck-stripes. The present data suggest that the characters used
to diagnose the subspecies are variable not only in Michoac['a]n, but
throughout the range of the species. Consequently, _Pituophis (deppei)
brevilineata_ Schmidt and Shannon (1947) is placed in the synonymy of
_Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis_ Cope (1861).

_Distribution._--The southern part of the Mexican Plateau in the states
of Michoac['a]n, M['e]xico, and Morelos, the Sierra de Coalcom['a]n in
southern Michoac['a]n, and