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Prosymna meleagris (REINHARDT, 1843)

IUCN Red List - Prosymna meleagris - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaProsymnidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Ghana Shovel-snout, Speckled Shovel-snout Snake 
SynonymCalamaria meleagris REINHARDT 1843
Temnorhynchus meleagris PETERS 1875: 198
Prosymna meleagris — LAURENT 1954: 57
Prosymna meleagris — LOVERIDGE 1955
Prosymna meleagris meleagris — LOVERIDGE 1958: 145
Prosymna meleagris — BROADLEY 1998
Prosymna meleagris — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 525
Prosymna meleagris — WALLACH et al. 2014: 581 
DistributionSenegal, Guinea (Conakry), Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Gambia (HÅKANSSON 1981)

Type locality: "Guinea," as old museum specimen, possibly near Gambia? [fide LOVERIDGE 1958]  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: ZMUC 60618
Holotype: MCZ [laurenti] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (891 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSubspecies: Prosymna maleagris greigerti MOCQUARD 1906 (and its subspecies collaris) have been elevated to full species status.

Type species: Calamaria meleagris REINHARDT 1843 is the type species of the genus Prosymna GRAY 1849.

Key: Loveridge 1958: 129 provides a key to the species of Prosymna, plus a table of comparative data (pp. 132-134).

Type genus: Prosymna GRAY 1849 is also the type genus of the family Prosymnidae KELLY et al. 2009 (or subfamily Prosymninae as used here). Only the genus Prosymna is currently included in this family (Vidal et al. 2008).

Distribution: apparently not in Guinea-Bissau (?), Uganda, W Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), S Sudan, Mali, Mauritania, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso (Lobi), as reported previously (see Chirio et al. 2011). Listed for Ethiopia by LARGEN & RASMUSSEN 1993. Not in East Africa (i.e. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi fide S. Spawls, pers. comm., 28 June 2018). Not in Liberia fide Senter & Chippaux 2022.

History: Calamaria meleagris was described by Reinhardt on the basis of two specimens (a third, subsequently seen, re- ceives passing mention in a postscript), obviously a male and female, though this is not stated. Both were from "Guinea," a name that in 1843 was applied to any of the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea from Portuguese Guinea to the French Congo. Fortunately Reinhardt states that his two snakes had different origins. One formed part of a collection sent to Copenhagen Museum in 1836 by Herr Chenon, assistant to the "government establishment on the coast." Presumably he refers to Christiansborg, one-time seat of Danish administration on the coast of Ghana near Accra, for the various species of snakes donated by Chenon are still common in Ghana [from LOVERIDGE 1958].

Diet: reptile eggs 
References
  • Aylmer, G. 1922. The Snakes of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone Studies 5: 7-37
  • Barnett, Linda K. 2001. The herpetofauna of Abuko Nature Reserve, the Gambia. Herpetological Bulletin (77): 5-1 - get paper here
  • Böhme, Wolfgang, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Christian Brede & Philipp Wagner 2011. The reptiles (Testudines, Squamata, Crocodylia) of the forested southeast of the Republic Guinea (Guinée forestière), with a country-wide checklist. Bonn zoological Bulletin 60 (1): 35-61 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1979. Predation on Reptile Eggs by African Snakes of the Genus Prosymna. Herpetologica 35 (4): 338-341 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1980. A revision of the African snake genus Prosymna Gray. Bull. Mus. natl. Hist. nat., Paris 22: 362-382
  • 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.
  • Chifundera, K. 1990. Snakes of Zaire and their bites. Afr. Stud. Monogr. (Kyoto) 10(3): 137-157.
  • 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., Ineich I., Schmitz A., Trape Jean-François. 2011. Note sur la systématique de quelques espèces du genre Prosymna Gray, 1849 en Afrique au nord de l'équateur (Serpentes, Prosymnidae). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 118 (1): 157-173
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  • Hörold, Ralf & Heidrun 2018. Die Königspythons daheim b(g)esucht, Teil 2. Ophidia 12 (1): 18-25
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  • Largen, M.J.; Spawls, S. 2010. Amphibians and Reptiles of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 694 pp.
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  • Laurent, RAYMOND F. 1954. Reptiles et batraciens de la région de Dundo (Angola) (Deuxième note). Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang), Serviços Culturais, Publicações Culturais, No. 23: 37-84
  • LeBreton, Matthew 1999. A working checklist of the herpetofauna of Cameroon. Netherlands Committee for IUCN, 160 pp.
  • Lönnberg, E. 1910. Two new snakes from Lower Congo. Arkiv för Zoologi 7 (8): 1-8 - get paper here
  • Loveridge, A. 1956. On snakes collected in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by J.S. Owen, Esq. Sudan Notes Rec. 36: 37-56 [1955]
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  • Mocquard, F. 1906. Description de quelques espéces nouvelles de Reptiles. Bull. Mus. nat. Hist. nat., Paris 7: 464-466. - get paper here
  • Monard, ALBERT 1940. Résultats de la mission du Dr. Monard en Guinée Portugaise 1937 – 1938. Arq. Mus. Bocage, Lisbon 11: 147-182
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  • Pitman,C.R.S. 1974. A guide to the snakes of Uganda. Codicote, Wheldon & Wesley, L., 290 pp.
  • Rasmussen, J.B. & B. Hughes 1996. Description of some new snake species. I. [English translation of the original Danish text of T. Reinhardt 1843]. Steenstrupia 22: 13-39
  • Reinhardt, J. T. 1843. Beskrivelse af nogle nye Slangearter. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Afhandl. 10: 233-279. - get paper here
  • Rödel,M.O.; Kouadio,K, & Mahsberg,D. 1999. Die Schlangenfauna des Comoé-Nationalparks, Elfenbeinküste: Ergänzungen und Ausblick. Salamandra 35 (3): 165-180 - get paper here
  • Segniagbeto GLazcano. H., Trape J. F., David P., Ohler A., Dubois A. & Glitho I. A. 2011. The snake fauna of Togo: systematics, distribution and biogeography, with remarks on selected taxonomic problems. Zoosystema 33 (3): 325-360. DOI: 10.5252/z2011n3a4 - get paper here
  • 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
  • Trape, J.-F. 2023. Guide des serpents d’Afrique occidentale, centrale et d’Afrique du Nord. IRD Éditions, Marseille, 896 pp.
  • Trape, J.-F. & Mané, Y. 2002. Les serpents du Sénégal: liste commentée des espèces. Bull. Soc. Pathol. Exot. 95 (3): 148-150
  • Trape, J.-F. & Mané, Y. 2004. Les serpents des environs de Bandafassi (Sénégal oriental). Bull. Soc. Herp. France 109: 5-34 - get paper here
  • Trape, J.-F. & Mané, Y. 2006. Guide des serpents d’Afrique occidentale. Savane et désert. [Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger]. IRD Editions, Paris, 226 pp. - get paper here
  • TRAPE, JEAN-FRANÇOIS & CELLOU BALDÉ 2014. A checklist of the snake fauna of Guinea, with taxonomic changes in the genera Philothamnus and Dipsadoboa (Colubridae) and a comparison with the snake fauna of some other West African countries. Zootaxa 3900 (3): 301–338 - get paper here
  • Trape, Jean-François; Mané, Youssouph 2000. Les serpents des environs de Dielmo (Sine-Saloum, Sénégal). Bull. Soc. Herp. France 95: 19-35 - get paper here
  • Ullenbruch, K.; Grell, O.; Böhme, W. 2010. Reptiles from southern Benin, West Africa, with the description of a new Hemidactylus (Gekkonidae), and a country-wide checklist. Bonn Zool. Bull. 57 (1): 31-54 - get paper here
  • VIDAL, NICOLAS;WILLIAM R. BRANCH, OLIVIER S.G. PAUWELS,, S. BLAIR HEDGES, DONALD G. BROADLEY, MICHAEL WINK, CORINNE CRUAUD, ULRICH JOGER & ZOLTÁN TAMÁS NAGY 2008. Dissecting the major African snake radiation: a molecular phylogeny of the Lamprophiidae Fitzinger (Serpentes, Caenophidia). Zootaxa 1945: 51–66 - 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.
 
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