Rhinophis

Rhinophis is a genus of nonvenomous shield tail snakes found in Sri Lanka and South India. Currently, 19 species (with no subspecies) are recognized in this genus.[2] Of the 19 species, 15 are endemic to Sri Lanka, while 4 are endemic to South India.

Rhinophis
Bloody-bellied earth snake, R. sanguineus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Rhinophis
Hemprich, 1820
Synonyms

[1]

Common names:Shield tail snakes

Geographic range

Found 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
Species[2] Taxon author[2] Common name Geographic range[1]
Rhinophis blythii Kelaart, 1853 Blyth's shield tail snake Sri Lanka in the hills of Central (Hatton and Pundluoya), Uva, Sabaragamuwa (Balangoda) and Southern Provinces.
Rhinophis dorsimaculatus Deraniyagala, 1941 Polka-dot earth snake[3] Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality in North Western Province.
Rhinophis drummondhayi Wall, 1921 Drummond-Hay's shield tail snake Sri Lanka in the Hills of 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: Cardamom Hills, Travancore.
Rhinophis goweri Aengals & Ganesh, 2013 Gower's shield tail snake[3] Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu in Bodha Malai Hills of Namakkal district.
Rhinophis homolepis (Hemprich, 1820) Trevelyan's shield tail snake[3] Sri Lanka in the Hills of Sabaragamuwa (Ratnapura, Yatiyantota and Balangoda Hills below 900 m), Central and Uva Provinces.
Rhinophis lineatus Gower & Maduwage, 2011[4] striped Rhinophis Sri Lanka
Rhinophis melanogaster (Gray, 1858) Gray's shield tail snake Sri Lanka
Rhinophis oxyrynchusT (Schneider, 1801) Schneider's shield tail snake Sri Lanka in the dry zone of Northern, Central and Eastern Provinces.
Rhinophis philippinus (Cuvier, 1829) Peter's shield tail snake Sri Lanka in the Hills of Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces.
Rhinopis phillipsi (Nicholls, 1929) Phillips' shield tail snake Sri Lanka
Rhinophis porrectus Wall, 1921 Willey's shield tail snake Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality in North Western Province.
Rhinophis punctatus J.P. Müller, 1832 Müller's shield tail snake Sri Lanka in Central (Kandy, Peradeniya) and Western Provinces (Puttalam).
Rhinophis roshanpererai Wickramasinghe et. al., 2017[5] Roshan Perera's shield tail snake Sri Lanka from central hills around Badulla
Rhinophis saffragamus (Kelaart, 1853) Large shield tail snake Sri Lanka
Rhinophis sanguineus Beddome, 1863 Bloody-bellied shield tail snake Southern India in the Western Ghats: Mysore (Koppa, Kalsa), Waynad, Nilgiris, Travancore and Tinnevelly Hills.
Rhinophis travancoricus Boulenger, 1893 Travancore shield tail 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 Deraniyagala's shild tail snake 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[4] Zigzag shield tail snake Sri Lanka

*) Not including the nominate subspecies.
T) Type species.[1]

gollark: I mean, they're mostly heuristics for stuff which vaguely made sense in the savannah 100000 years ago.
gollark: Privacy, because apparently Humanity doesn't care about it.
gollark: Hmm, so nutrient paste with flavouring, then.
gollark: That doesn't really make it "rational" to eat that instead of nutrient paste when we are no longer constrained that way as much.
gollark: Yes, the whole thing of humans previously not having access to much energy from food in the environment they involved in, or whatever.]

References
  1. 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).
  2. "Rhinophis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
  3. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  4. Gower, D.J.; Mduwage, K. (2011). "Two new species of Rhinophis Hemprich (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from Sri Lanka" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2881: 51–68.
  5. "A New Species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the central hills of Sri Lanka". Zootaxa. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  • 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.
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