Chamaelycus fasciatus (GÜNTHER, 1858)
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Chamaelycus fasciatus
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| Higher Taxa | Lamprophiidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: African Banded Snake |
| Synonym | Alopecion fasciatum GÜNTHER 1858: 196 Lycophidium irroratum GÜNTHER 1868: 426 (part.) Lycophidium fasciatum — BOULENGER 1893: 342 Lycophidium werneri MOCQUARD 1902: 412 Lycophidium fasciatum — STERNFELD 1917 Lycophidion fasciatum — SCHMIDT 1923: 69 Oophilositum fasciatum — PARKER 1933: 545 Lycophidion fasciatum — LOVERIDGE 1936 Chamaelycus werneri — BOGERT 1940 Oophilositum fasciatum — LAURENT 1956: 125 Oophilositum fasciatum — PERRET 1961 Oophilositum fasciatum — DE WITTE 1962: 73 Chamaelycus fasciatus — WITTE 1963 Chamaelycus werneri — HUGHES 1983 Chamaelycus fasciatus — BROADLEY 1998 Chamaelycus werneri — LEBRETON 1999 Chamaelycus fasciatus — BÖHME et al. 2011: 58 Chamaelycus fasciatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 157 Chamaelycus werneri — WALLACH et al. 2014: 157 Chamaelycus fasciatus — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 404 |
| Distribution | W/C/E Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, probably Benin (Hughes 2013), Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, W Uganda Type locality: West Africa werneri: Cameroon ?, Gabon (fide MOCQUARD 1902), Congo (Brazzaville); Type locality: "à environ 50 kilomètres an Sud-Ouest de Lambaréné, Gabon." |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Type: BMNH 1946.1.14.29 (and possibly additional specimens). Holotype: MNHN-RA 1901.0551, a 350 mm female (Haug) [werneri] |
| Diagnosis | |
| Comment | Synonymy: partly after BOULENGER 1893. C. werneri is a synonym of C. fasciatus (Chippaux and Jackson 2019, see also Angel, 1934, Dowling, 1969, Pauwels & Vande Weghe 2008). Distribution: Not reported from Benin according to ULLENBRUCH et al. 2010. Not listed for Cameroon by CHIRIO & LEBRETON 2007. C. werneri from Gabon and Cameroon were mentioned by Hughes 1983 in a table, without comments; LeBreton 1999 then repeated these records based on Hughes 1983. Within Gabon, the only other record of C. werneri besides the type was made by Knoepffler 1966: 7 who got a single specimen from Makokou (about 350 km NE of the type locality of C. werneri), from where he also got a C. fasciatus (Knoepffler presented a specimen of C. fasciatus from Lambarene, at just 50 km from the type-locality of C. werneri). (O. Pauwels, pers. comm., 26 July 2019). For a map with localities in Equatorial Guinea see SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS et al. 2022. Morphology: The only difference between Chamaelycus fasciatus and C. werneri is that the latter is said to have a loreal in contact with the orbit. However, this is probably not a stable condition, as in C. christy, which shows both states (de Witte, 1963). The record of C. werneri from Cameroon (Bogert, 1940) at Metet at about 1000 km N-NE from the type-locality of C. werneri, is based on a single specimen whose loreals contacted the respective orbits. Bogert (1940: 32) mentioned the necessity to demonstrate that werneri was really distinct from fasciatus. Knoepffler (loc. cit.: 8) mentioned that he identified it as a C. werneri based on its contact between the loreal and the orbit, but he suggested that what defines werneri is just a variation within fasciatus, as did Angel (1934) as he mentioned. In conclusion, only one scalation character separates werneri from fasciatus (a variable character within the genus), and this character does not seem to have a zoogeographical pattern vs. the whole distribution of fasciatus (O. Pauwels, pers. comm., 26 July 2019). Similar species: Lycophidion irroratum |
| Etymology | Named after its banded pattern “”fasciatus”). C. werneri was named after Franz Werner (1867-1939), Austrian zoologist. |
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