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Philothamnus ornatus BOCAGE, 1872

IUCN Red List - Philothamnus ornatus - Least Concern, LC

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Ornate Green Snake 
SynonymPhilothamnus ornatus BOCAGE 1872
Chlorophis ornatus — BOULENGER 1894: 93
Chlorophis ornatus — WITTE 1933
Philothamnus irregularis ornatus — LOVERIDGE 1958: 82
Philothamnus ornatus — BROADLEY 1959
Philothamnus ornatus — PERRET 1961
Philothamnus ornatus — HUGHES 1985: 520
Philothamnus ornatus — AUERBACH 1987: 182
Philothamnus ornatus — BROADLEY 1998
Philothamnus ornatus — BROADLEY et al. 2003: 194
Philothamnus ornatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 557
Philothamnus ornatus — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 493 
DistributionZimbabwe, (Okavango Swamp), N Botswana, S Angola, Lake Malawi, Zambia, N Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Cameroon, W Tanzania, Namibia, Republic of South Sudan (RSS)

Type locality: Huilla, Angola (restricted by Bogert 1940).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: lost; there were 3 specimens, 2 in MBL (Lisbon), a male and female (J.A. d’Anchieta, 1871) [Huilla], and MBL, a female (Hopffer, 1871) [Cacheu], longest syntype 710 mm, destroyed by fire 18 March 1978; other specimens: MCZ (type status unclear) 
DiagnosisUnfortunately 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 460 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentDistribution: Has been erroneously listed for Benin but does not occur there (Hughes 2013).

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyThe Latin ornata, -us, = decorated" or "ornamented," refers to the ornate coloration. 
References
  • Auerbach, R.D. 1987. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Botswana. Mokwepa Consultants, Botswana, 295 pp.
  • Bocage, J. V. B. 1872. Diagnoses de quelques espéces nouvelles de Reptiles d'Afrique occidentale. Jorn. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat. Lisboa 4: 72-82. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, George A. 1894. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. British Mus. (Nat. Hist.), London, xi, 382 pp. - get paper here
  • Broadley, D. & Blaylock 2013. The Snakes of Zimbabwe and Botswana. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 387 pp. [book review in Sauria 35 (2): 59 and Copeia 2014: 388] - get paper here
  • Broadley, D. G. & HOWELL, K. M. 1991. A check list of the reptiles of Tanzania, with synoptic keys. Syntarsus 1: 1—70
  • Broadley, D.G. 1959. The herpetology of Southern Rhodesia. Part I--the snakes. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 120 (1): 1-100 [reprint 1972] - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1960. Some new records of Philothamnus ornatus from Southern Rhodesia. J. Herp. Assoc. Rhodesia 13: 6 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1962. On some reptile collections from the North-Western and North-Eastern Districts of Southern Rhodesia 1958-1961, with descriptions of four new lizards. Occ. Pap. Nat. Mus. South. Rhodesia 26 (B): 787-843
  • Broadley, D.G. 1991. The Herpetofauna of Northern Mwinilunga Distr., Northw. Zambia. Arnoldia Zimbabwe 9 (37): 519-538
  • Broadley, D.G. 1998. The reptilian fauna of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa). In: Schmidt, K.P. and Noble, G.K., Contributions to the Herpetology of the Belgian Congo... [reprint of the 1919 and 1923 papers]. SSAR Facsimile reprints in Herpetology, 780 pp.
  • Broadley, D.G.; Doria, C.T. & Wigge, J. 2003. Snakes of Zambia. An Atlas and Field Guide. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 280 pp. [review in Sauria 26 (3): 21]
  • Chippaux, Jean-Philippe & Kate Jackson 2019. Snakes of Central and Western Africa. Johns Hopkins University Press, 448 pp. [detaileld review in HR 51 (1): 161] - get paper here
  • Chirio, L. & Lebreton, M. 2007. Atlas des reptiles du Cameroun. MNHN, IRD, Paris 688 pp.
  • Conradie W and Branch WR. 2016. The herpetofauna of the Cubango, Cuito, and lower Cuando river catchments of south-eastern Angola. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 10 (2) [Special Section]: 6–36 - get paper here
  • CONRADIE, WERNER; NINDA L. BAPTISTA, LUKE VERBURGT, CHAD KEATES, JAMES HARVEY, TIMOTEO JULIO & GOTZ NEEF. 2021. Contributions to the herpetofauna of the Angolan Okavango-Cuando-Zambezi river drainages. Part 1: Serpentes (snakes). Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 15(2): 244–278. - get paper here
  • Engelbrecht, H.M., Branch, W.R., Greenbaum, E., Alexander, G.J., Jackson, K., Burger, M., Conradie, W., Kusamba, C., Zassi-Boulou, A-G., Tolley, K.A. 2018. Diversifying into the branches: species boundaries in African green and bush snakes, Philothamnus (Serpentes: Colubridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 130: 357-365 - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Herrmann, H.-W.; W.R. Branch 2013. Fifty years of herpetological research in the Namib Desert and Namibia with an updated and annotated species checklist. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 94–115 - get paper here
  • Hughes, B. 1985. Progress on a taxonomic revision of African green tree snakes (Philothamnus spp.). In: Schuchmann, K.L. (ed.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on African Vertebrates. ZFMK, Bonn, pp. 511-530
  • Lambiris, A. J. I. 1980. Philothamnus ornatus near Salisbury, Rhodesia. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (23): 11-12 - get paper here
  • Loveridge,A. 1958. Revision of five african snake genera. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 119: 1-198 (141) - get paper here
  • Marques, Mariana P.; Luis M. P. Ceríaco , David C. Blackburn , and Aaron M. Bauer 2018. Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola -- Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840–2017). Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (Ser. 4) 65: 1-501 (Supplement II)
  • Monard, ALBERT 1931. Mission scientifique Suisse dans l'Angola. Résultats scientifiques. Reptiles. Bull. Soc. Neuchâtel Sci. Nat., vol. 33, pp. 89-111. [1930] - get paper here
  • Nielsen, T. G., Nielsen, S. H., Gravlund, P., Moyer, D., Galatius, A., & Allentoft, M. E. 2021. A can of worms: Identification issues and morphological conservatism in a large sample of African Green and Bush Snakes (Colubridae: Philothamnus) from Minziro Forest, Tanzania. African Journal of Herpetology, 1-16. Chicago - get paper here
  • Perret, J.L. 1961. Études herpétologiques africaines III. 1. La faune ophidienne de la région camerounaise. Bull. Soc. neuchâtel. Sci. nat., 84: 133-138
  • Pietersen, Darren, Verburgt, Luke & Davies, John 2021. Snakes and other reptiles of Zambia and Malawi. Struik Nature / Penguin Random House South Africa, 376 pp., ISBN 9781775847373
  • Schleicher, Alfred 2020. Reptiles of Namibia. Kuiseb Publishers, Windhoek, Namibia, 271 pp.
  • Spawls, S.; Howell, K.; Drewes, R.C. & Ashe, J. 2002. A field guide to the reptiles of East Africa. Academic Press, 543 pp. [reviews in HR 34: 396 and Afr. J. Herp. 51; 147] - get paper here
  • Spawls, Steve; Kim Howell, Harald Hinkel, Michele Menegon 2018. Field Guide to East African Reptiles. Bloomsbury, 624 pp. - get paper here
  • Trape, J.-F. 2023. Guide des serpents d’Afrique occidentale, centrale et d’Afrique du Nord. IRD Éditions, Marseille, 896 pp.
  • 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.
  • Witte, G. F. de 1933. Reptiles récoltés au Conge Belge par le Dr. H. Schouteden et par M. G.-F. Witte. Ann. Mus. Conge belge Zool. Ser. 1 Tome III: 53-100.
 
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