Rhinophis is a genus of nonvenomous shield-tail snakes found in Sri Lanka and South India.[2] Currently, 24 species (with no subspecies) are recognized in this genus. Of the 24 species, 18 are endemic to Sri Lanka, while six are endemic to South India.[3]
| Rhinophis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Salty earth snake, R. sanguineus | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Uropeltidae |
| Genus: | Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 |
| Synonyms | |
- Common names: shield-tail snakes, earth snakes
Geographic range
editFound mainly in Sri Lanka and also in southern India. In Sri Lanka, this genus also occurs in low plains in the dry zone.[1]
Species
edit| Species[2] | Taxon author[2] | Common name | Geographic range[1] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhinophis blythii | Kelaart, 1853 | Blyth's earth snake | Sri Lanka in the hills of the Central (Hatton and Pundluoya), Uva, Sabaragamuwa (Balangoda) and Southern Province. |
| Rhinophis dorsimaculatus | Deraniyagala, 1941 | polka-dot earth snake[4] | Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality in the North Western Province. |
| Rhinophis drummondhayi | Wall, 1921 | Drummond-Hay's earth snake | Sri Lanka in the hills of the Central and Uva Provinces (Haldumulla, Nanunukula and Uva Patnas at 1,200 m elevation). |
| Rhinophis erangaviraji | Wickramasinghe et al., 2009 | Eranga Viraj's shield-tail snake | Sri Lanka. |
| Rhinophis fergusonianus | Boulenger, 1896 | Cardamom Hills shield-tail snake | Southern India in the Western Ghats: the Cardamom Hills, Travancore. |
| Rhinophis goweri | Aengals & Ganesh, 2013 | Gower's shield-tail snake | the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu in the Bodha Malai Hills of the Namakkal District |
| Rhinophis gunasekarai | Wickramasinghe, Vidanapathirana, Wickramasinghe, & Gower, 2020 | Gunasekara’s shield-tail snake | Sri Lanka (the Central Province) |
| Rhinophis homolepis | (Hemprich, 1820) | Trevelyan's earth snake[4] | Sri Lanka in the hills of Sabaragamuwa (Ratnapura, Yatiyantota and Balangoda Hills below 900 m), the Central and Uva Provinces |
| Rhinophis karinthandani | Sampaio et al., 2020[5] | Sri Lanka: Wayanad | |
| Rhinophis lineatus | Gower & Maduwage, 2011[6] | striped earth snake | Sri Lanka |
| Rhinophis melanogaster | (Gray, 1858) | Gray's earth snake | Sri Lanka |
| Rhinophis melanoleucus | Cyriac, Narayanan, Sampaio, Umesh, & Gower, 2020 | India (Kerala) | |
| Rhinophis mendisi | Gower, 2020 | Mendis' shield-tail snake | Sri Lanka |
| Rhinophis oxyrynchusT | (Schneider, 1801) | Schneider's earth snake | Sri Lanka in the dry zone of the Northern, Central and Eastern Provinces |
| Rhinophis philippinus | (Cuvier, 1829) | Peters's earth snake | Sri Lanka in the hills of Sabaragamuwa and the Central Provinces |
| Rhinophis phillipsi | (Nicholls, 1929) | Phillips' earth snake | Sri Lanka |
| Rhinophis porrectus | Wall, 1921 | Willey's earth snake | Sri Lanka, known only from the type locality in the North Western Province |
| Rhinophis punctatus | J.P. Müller, 1832 | Müller's earth snake | Sri Lanka in the Central (Kandy, Peradeniya) and Western Provinces (Puttalam) |
| Rhinophis roshanpererai | Wickramasinghe et al., 2017[7] | Roshan Perera's shield-tail snake | Sri Lanka from the central hills around Badulla |
| Rhinophis saffragamus | (Kelaart, 1853) | large shield-tail snake | Sri Lanka |
| Rhinophis sanguineus | Beddome, 1863 | salty earth snake | Southern India in the Western Ghats: Mysore (Koppa, Kalsa), Waynad, the Nilgiris, Travancore and the Tinnevelly Hills |
| Rhinophis travancoricus | Boulenger, 1893 | Travancore earth snake | Southern India: Travancore, from sea level to an elevation of about 1,200 m in the hills. In Trivandrum, Peermade, Mahendragiri, Ernakulam and Chenganacherry. |
| Rhinophis tricoloratus | Deraniyagala, 1975 | Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality: "vicinity of the rain forest of Sinha Raja to the south west of Ratnapura at an elevation of 1,500 feet with a rainfall of over 200 inches per annum". | |
| Rhinophis zigzag | Gower & Maduwage, 2011[6] | zigzag shield-tail snake | Sri Lanka |
- ) Not including the nominate subspecies.
T) Type species.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
- ^ a b c "Rhinophis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
- ^ Sampaio, Filipa L.; Narayanan, Surya; Cyriac, Vivek Philip; Venu, Govindappa; Gower, David J. (2020-11-18). "A new Indian species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 closely related to R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae)". Zootaxa. 4881 (1): zootaxa.4881.1.1. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4881.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 33311126.
- ^ a b The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
- ^ Sampaio, Filipa L.; Narayanan, Surya; Cyriac, Vivek Philip; Venu, Govindappa & Gower, David J. (2020-11-18). "A new Indian species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 closely related to R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae)". Zootaxa. 4881 (1): 1–24. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4881.1.1. PMID 33311126.
- ^ a b Gower, D.J.; Mduwage, K. (2011). "Two new species of Rhinophis Hemprich (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from Sri Lanka" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2881: 51–68. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2881.1.4. S2CID 86294901.
- ^ Wickramasinghe, L. J. Mendis; Vidanapathirana, Dulan Ranga; Rajeev, M. D. Gehan & Gower, David J. (2017). "A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the central hills of Sri Lanka". Zootaxa. 4263 (1): 153–164. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4263.1.7. PMID 28609885.
External links
edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rhinophis.
- Rhinophis at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 1 September 2007.
- Aengals, R.; S. R. Ganesh 2013. Rhinophis goweri — A New Species of Shieldtail Snake from the Southern Eastern Ghats, India. Russ. J. Herpetol. 20 (1): 61-65.
- Ganesh, S. R. 2015. Shieldtail snakes (Reptilia: Uropeltidae)– the Darwin's finches of south Indian snake fauna? Manual on Identification and Preparation of Keys of Snakes with Special Reference to their Venomous Nature in India., Govt. Arts College, Ooty, 13-24.
- Pyron, R. A., Ganesh, S. R., Sayyed, A., Sharma, V., Wallach, V., & Somaweera, R. 2016. A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae). Zoosystema, 38(4), 453-506.