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Alsophis sibonius COPE, 1879

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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Alsophiini, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Dominica Racer, Dominican Racer 
SynonymAlsophis sibonius COPE 1879: 275
Alsophis sibonius — GARMAN 1887: 283
Alsophis leucomelas sibonius — PARKER 1933: 157
Alsophis antillensis sibonius — WHITE & MUELLEMAN 2008
Alsophis sibonius — HEDGES et al. 2009
Alsophis sibonius — WALLACH et al. 2014: 25 
DistributionDominica

Type locality: Dominica.  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: USNM 10138 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: “Scale-formula 19-1917; ventral 191- 201 subcaudals, female 112-115 +1, male 112-122 +1. Colour pattern in juveniles consisting of an undulating dark vertebral stripe, a narrow lateral line, and dark spots on the flanks and hinder part of the belly. In adults the posterior part of the body is almost entirely black, but anteriorly the dorsal stripe is broken up into a series of large oval spots narrowly separated from one another ; the light interspaces may be fused on the sides of the neck to form a fairly distinct light stripe. Eleven specimens examined, seven females and four males. This form is readily distinguished from the typical form by the higher number of scales in front of the vent and the lower number of subcaudals in the male.” (Parker 1933: 157)


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Comment 
EtymologyThe species epithet, sibonius, (sibon + -ius) "like a sibon snake" is a reference to the coloration of the species, as Cope stated, "the coloration resembles that of the common South American Sibon annulatum." May be named after the Latin noun sibonis, a kind of hunting spear" (Lee, 1996:357, cited in McCranie 2011). See also Sibon nebulatus, the type species of the genus Sibon. 
References
  • Cope, E.D. 1879. Eleventh contribution to the herpetology of tropical America. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 18: 261-277. - get paper here
  • Garman, S. 1887. On West Indian reptiles in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 24: 278-286. - get paper here
  • Hedges, S. Blair; Arnaud Couloux; Vidal, Nicolas 2009. Molecular phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of West Indian racer snakes of the Tribe Alsophiini (Squamata, Dipsadidae, Xenodontinae). Zootaxa 2067: 1-28 - get paper here
  • Knapp, Charles R. and Philip L. Shirk. 2010. Alsophis sibonius: Copulation. Herpetological Review 41 (3): 361 - get paper here
  • Parker, H. W. 1933. Some amphibians and reptiles from the Lesser Antilles. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (10) 11:151-158. - get paper here
  • Thorpe, R.S. 2022. Reptiles of the Lesser Antilles. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 608 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.
  • White, Lauren A. and Peter J. Muelleman. 2008. Juvenile pattern and ontogenetic pattern changes in Dominican Racers. Iguana 15 (3):157-159
  • 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
 
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