Rhabdophis angeli (BOURRET, 1934)

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Higher Taxa	Colubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Angel’s Keelback E: Guangdong Keelback Chinese: 广东颈槽蛇 [guangdongensis]
Synonym	Natrix (Rhabdophis) angelii BOURRET 1934 Rhabdophis angeli — BOURRET 1935: 4 Rhabdophis angelii — BOURRET 1936 Natrix angeli — SMITH 1943: 300 Amphiesma angelii — NGUYEN et al. 1996 Amphiesma angelii — NGUYEN & HO 1996 Rhabdophis angelii — ORLOV et al. 2000 Rhabdophis angeli — NGUYEN et al. 2009 Rhabdophis angeli — WALLACH et al. 2014: 633 Rhabdophis guangdongensis ZHU, WANG, TAKEUCHI & ZHAO 2014 Rhabdophis guangdongensis — NGUYEN & DAVID 2023 Rhabdophis angeli — NGUYEN et al. 2025
Distribution	Vietnam (Vinh Phuc) Type locality: Tam-Dao, Tong-King (= Tam Dao, Vinh Phuc Province, North Vietnam) guangdongensis (invalid): China (Guangdong) Type locality: Aizhai Village (24°56′16.58′′ N, 113°39′57.82′′ E; 132 m a.s.l., datum = WGS84), Renhua County, Guangdong Province, China
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: MNHN-RA 1938.0123 Holotype: SYS (also as SYSU) r000018, adult female, collected by Ying-Yong Wang, on May 26, 2008 (Sun Yat-sen University = SYS, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China) [guangdongensis]
Diagnosis	Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 4414 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	Some species of this genus are venomous although we do not have information about this particular species. Synonymy: Nguyen et al. 2025 synonymized R. guangdongensis with R. angeli. Sympatry: Rhabdophis subminiatus. Abundance: rare; R. guangdongensis was only known from 4 specimens and/or 4 localities (Nguyen & David 2023). R. angeli was categorized as near threatened” by Nguyen et al. 2025. Distribution (guangdongensis): see map in Nguyen & David 2023: Fig. 1, but also see Nguyen et al. 2025. NCBI taxonID: 1550503 [guangdongensis] RDB speciesID: 18123 [guangdongensis] Etymology: R. guangdongensis was named after its type locality in Guangdong province, China.
References	Ahmed, M. Firoz and Abhijit Das 2006. FIRST RECORD OF RHABDOPHIS NUCHALIS (BOULENGER, 1891) (SERPENTES: COLUBRIDAE) FROM INDIA, WITH NOTES ON ITS DISTRIBUTION AND NATURAL HISTORY. Hamadryad 30 (1 & 2): 120 – 126 - get paper here Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Bourret, R. 1934. Notes herpétologiques sur l'Indochine Française II. Sur quelques serpents des montagnes du Tonkin. Bull. Gen. Instr. Pub. Hanoi 8 (April 1934): 149-157 [13: 1-11 ?] Bourret,R. 1935. Notes herpétologiques sur l'Indochine Française X. Les serpents de la station d’altitude du Tam-dao. Bull. Gen. Instr. Pub. Hanoi 8 (avril): 259-271 (1-13) Guibé, J. & Davis, D.D. 1951. Fernand Angel, 1881-1950. Copeia 1951 (1): 1-2 - get paper here Liu, Q., Lyu, B., Xie, X., Zeng, Y., & Guo, P. 2023. Genomic evidence sheds new light on phylogeny of Rhabdophis nuchalis (sensu lato) complex (Serpentes: Natricidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 107893 - get paper here Nguyen Van Sang & Ho Thu Cuc 1996. Danh luc bo sat va ech nhai Viet Nam. Nha xuat ban khoa hoc va ky thuat. Hanoi, 264 pp. Nguyen, S.V., Ho, C.T. and Nguyen, T.Q. 2009. Herpetofauna of Vietnam. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 768 pp. Nguyen, T.V., Keetapithchayakul, T.S., Lathrop, A., Orlov, N.L., Nguyen, D.T., Poyarkov, N.A. & David, P. 2025. Molecular and morphological evidences for considering Rhabdophis guangdongensis Zhu, Wang, Takeuchi & Zhao, 2014 a junior synonym of Rhabdophis angeli (Bourret, 1934) (Squamata: Natricidae). Zootaxa 5706 (1): 1–35 - get paper here Nguyen, Tan Van & David, P. 2023. ON THE OCCURRENCE OF RHABDOPHIS LEONARDI (WALL, 1923) IN VIETNAM AND LAOS, WITH PRELIMINARY COMMENTS ON THE TAXONOMY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE COMPLEX OF RHABDOPHIS NUCHALIS (SQUAMATA: SERPENTES: NATRICIDAE). Russian Journal of Herpetology 30 (4): 224 – 236 Orlov, N. L., R. W. Murphy & T. J. Papenfuss 2000. List of snakes of Tam-Dao mountain ridge (Tonkin, Vietnam). Russ. J. Herpetol. 7 (1): 69-80. - get paper here Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp. - get paper here Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp. Wang, Kai; Jinlong Ren, Hongman Chen, Zhitong Lyu, Xianguang Guo Ke Jiang, Jinmin Chen, Jiatang Li, Peng Guo, Yingyong Wang, Jing Che 2020. The updated checklists of amphibians and reptiles of China. Biodiversity Science 28 (2): 189-218 - get paper here Zhu, G. X., Yang, S., Savitzky, A. H., Zhang, L., Cheng, Y., & Wang, J. 2020. The Nucho-dorsal Glands of Rhabdophis guangdongensis (Squamata: Colubridae: Natricinae), with Notes on Morphological Variation and Phylogeny Based on Additional Specimens. Current Herpetology, 39 (2): 108-119 - get paper here ZHU, GUANG-XIANG; YING-YONG WANG,HIROHIKO TAKEUCHI & ER-MI ZHAO 2014. A new species of the genus Rhabdophis Fitzinger, 1843 (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China. Zootaxa 3765 (5): 469–480 - get paper here Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List https://www.facebook.com/groups/stshc/posts/431792859045318 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0DF6D148-ECEF-4589-826C… https://www.facebook.com/groups/stshc/posts/345218247702780 Google images

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