Abbreviation;"Character description"
"A — SCALE COUNTS"
VSC;"Number of ventral scales, not including the scale covering the cloacal opening. The first ventral scale is defined as the first complete ventral scale after the paired chin shields (see Discussion for why Dowling’s method was not used)."
SCS;"Number of paired subcaudal scales. Fused scales were treated as a pair. A single scale on one side only was counted as 0.5."
VENTEDGE;"Number of gular scales between the edge of the mouth and the ventral scales/genial shields, starting at and including last infralabial."
GENIAL;"Number of paired chin shields between first infralabial scales and first ventral scale"
POSTOC;"Number of postocular scales, not counting supra- or subocular scales"
SOCBORD;"Number of scales contacting subocular, not counting those immediately before and after."
SUPLAB;"Number of supralabials"
INFLAB;"Number of infralabials (also known as lateral gulars)"
BORSUPOC;"Number of scales bordering supraocular scales, not counting pre- or postoculars"
BTWSUPOC1;"Minimum number of scales between supraoculars"
BTWSUPOC2;"Minimum number of scales between posterior edges of supraoculars"
NASPIT;"Number of scales between the nasal scale and the shield bordering the pit anteriorly"
INTNAS;"Number of scales separating the internasal scales"
LABNAS;"Degree of fusion between scale surrounding nostril and first supralabial scale, ranging from no fusion (0) to complete fusion (1) in increments of 0.25"
LAB3;"Minimum number of scales separating 3rd supralabial and subocular"
LAB4;"Minimum number of scales separating 4th supralabial and subocular"
LAB5;"Minimum number of scales separating 5th supralabial and subocular"
ROST;"Shape of rostral scale measured as ratio of dorsal margin to ventral margin"
"B — SCALE REDUCTION CHARACTERS: two characters recorded for each scale reduction"
VSxtoy/SCxtoy;"VSC or SC position, the ventral or subcaudal scale at which the scale reductions occur (averaged if different on either side)"
DVxtoy;"DV, the average dorsoventral position of lowest of the two scale rows involved in the scale reduction"
"C — MEASUREMENTS"
WSUPOC;"Width of supraocular, at its widest point"
LSUPOC;"Length of supraocular"
WINTNAS;"Width of internasal, measured horizontally with respect to the head"
EYE2NOS;"Distance between eye and nostril, measured from the suture between second and third preoculars and inner edge of nostril"
NOS2PIT;"Distance between pit and nostril, measured between their outer edges"
PIT2EYE;"Distance between eye and pit, measured between their inner edges along the suture between first second preoculars"
DEYE;"Horizontal diameter of eye (not measured in live animals to avoid damaging eye)"
WHEAD1;"Width of head measured between outer rear edges of supraoculars"
WHEAD2;"Width of head measured at its widest point"
LHEAD;"Length of the head measured between tip of snout to posterior edge of lower jawbone"
SVL;"Distance between the tip of the snout and the cloaca (in cm, to nearest mm)."
TAIL;"Distance between the anterior edge of the first subcaudal scale and the tip of the tail (in cm, to nearest mm)"
"D — COLOUR and KEELING"
STRIPE;"Presence of stripe covering dorsal scale row one (0, absent; 1, indistinct; 2, distinct)"
SCRSTR;"Number of scale rows involved in stripe"
SCR1;"The proportion of the first scale row covered by the light area"
OCSTRIPE;"Postocular stripe (0, absent; 1, indistinct; 2, distinct)"
SCROC;"Number of scale rows involved in postocular stripe"
LIPCOL;"Number of scales above lip covered by ventral colour"
BSCK;"Keeling of body scales measured at mid-body"
KTEMP;"Keeling of temporal scales"
KHEADSC;"Keeling of head scales"
KBTWSUPOC;"Keeling of scales between supraoculars."