The presence of paravertebral stripes in combination with the characteristics of the genus distinguish _Conophis pulcher_ from all other snakes in southern México and Central America. The only sympatric species of this genus, _C. lineatus dunni_, differs in that it lacks paravertebral stripes, although it may have a single vertebral stripe. _Conophis lineatus dunni_ has lateral dark stripes that are present on the 3rd and 4th scale-rows, never on the anterior third of the body as in _C. pulcher_. Even in juveniles the third pair of dark stripes includes the lower part of the 9th scale-row in _C. pulcher_, whereas the dorsal most dark stripe of _C. lineatus dunni_ never includes more than the lower part of the 8th scale-row.
_Distribution._--Pacific coastal region of Chiapas, México, southeastward into Guatemala; southeastern highlands and the dry valley of central and eastern Guatemala; Caribbean lowlands of Honduras southward to the region of Tegucigalpa, Honduras (fig. 4).
_Specimens examined._--Total of 27, as follows: GUATEMALA: _no specific locality_, CNHM 22912, NMW 16830. _Jutiapa_: Hacienda Mongoy, UMMZ 106725. _El Progreso_: El Progreso, CAS 67000; _El Rancho_, UMMZ 106724; _San Antonio_, CAS 66999. "Peten," USNM 6751(2), 6803. _Sacatepequez_: Dueñas, BMNH 64.1.26.17, 64.1.26.126-127. _Zacapa_: Pepesca, AMNH 72555-56.
HONDURAS: _no specific locality_, AMNH 58364. _Cortes_: San Pedro Sula, CNHM 5295-96. _Francisco Morazan: El Zamarano_, AMNH 70189; Tegucigalpa, MCZ 49785, 49787-88, 49791, 49793, 49795.
MÉXICO: _Chiapas_: _Soconusco_, UIMNH 33646-47; Tonalá, USNM 109707.
_Tomodon lineatum_ (in part), Duméril, Bibron and Duméril, Érpétologie Genérale, 7(pt. 2):936-938, February 25, 1854.
_Conophis vittatus_ Peters, Monatsb. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, pp. 519-520, pl., fig. 3, October, 1860; Cope, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 11:162, 1870; Bocourt _in_ Duméril, Bocourt and Mocquard, Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amerique Centrale, 2:644-646, pl. 38, fig. 7, 1886; Günther, Biologia Centrali-Americana, p. 165, March, 1895; Boulenger, Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), 3:123-124, 1896; Cope, Amer. Nat., 30:1024, 1896; Ann. Rept. U. S. Natl. Mus. for 1898, pp. 1094-1095, 1232, 1900; Gadow, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 2:225, 1905; Amaral, Mem. Inst. Butantan, 4:211, 1929; Gadow, Jorullo, p. 55, 1930; Smith, Zool. Ser. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., 24:31-32, January 30, 1939; Taylor and Smith, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 25:252-253, pl. 23, July 10, 1939; Stuart, Contr. Lab. Vert. Biol. Univ. Michigan, 65:23, March, 1954; Alvarez del Toro, Reptiles de Chiapas, pp. 153-154, 1960.