_Pituophis deppei deppei_, Stull, Occas. Papers Mus. Zool. Univ.
Michigan, no. 250, p. 1, October 12, 1932; Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus.
175, p. 25, April 23, 1940; Smith and Taylor, U. S. Natl. Mus., no.
187, p. 107, 1945.

_Type._--Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, No. ???, obtained
by Ferdinand Deppe. The type locality was originally given as "Mexico";
this was restricted to San Juan Teotihuac['a]n, state of M['e]xico, by
Smith and Taylor (1950: 334).

_Diagnosis._--This subspecies is characterized by the presence of solid
body-blotches and lateral intercalary spots, dorsal interspaces less
than five scales in length, and the absence of paired stripes or rows of
blotches, on the anterior part of the body. There are 209 to 232
ventrals and 52 to 62 caudals. The body-blotches number 27 to 49. In
adults the anterior and posterior body-blotches are black; the lateral
intercalary spots are solid black. In many individuals black dashes
connect the adjacent corners of the dorsal body-blotches (Pl. 45, Fig.
1). In juveniles the anterior, dorsal body-blotches are black, whereas
those at the midbody and posteriorly are brown.

_Variation._--Geographically, scutellation varies only slightly.
Comparison of specimens from the northern part of the Mexican Plateau
(Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango--5 specimens), the central part of the
plateau (Aguascalientes, San Luis Potos['i], and Zacatecas--13 specimens),
the southern part of the plateau (Guanajuato, Jalisco, M['e]xico, and
Michoac['a]n--18 specimens), and Puebla and southern Veracruz (12
specimens) shows the average number of ventrals for these samples to be,
respectively, 221.6, 216.7, 221.3, and 220.0. The average number of
dorsal body-blotches for the same samples are, respectively, 36.6,
37.7, 38.4, and 34.6. Only in the southernmost sample is there a
noticeable difference in the number of blotches.

The specimen from P['a]rajo Verde, Veracruz, was considered to be an
intergrade between _P. deppei_ and _P. lineaticollis_ by Smith (1943:
461), who stated that, although the snake had 231 ventrals and dark
lateral streaks as does _deppei_, it had light-centered dorsal blotches
and stripes on the neck as does _lineaticollis_. This specimen (USNM
110892) has a high number of ventrals for _deppei_; one from Jalisco has
232, and one each from Guanajuato and Veracruz have 229. The blotches
posteriorly are lighter than those anteriorly and are slightly