Cylindrophis ruffus (LAURENTI, 1768)
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Cylindrophis ruffus
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| Higher Taxa | Cylindrophiidae, Henophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Red-tailed Pipe Snake, Red Cylinder Snake G: Rotschwanz-Walzenschlange, Rote Walzenschlange Indonesian: Ular Pipa Ekor Merah E: Mirza’s Pipe-Snake [mirzae] Indonesian: Ular Pipa Mirza [mirzae] Chinese: 红尾筒蛇 |
| Synonym | Anguis ruffa LAURENTI 1768: 71 Anguis rufus — GMELIN 1789 (nomen emend.) Anguis striatus GMELIN 1789 Anguis scytale RUSSELL 1801 Anguis rufa — SHAW 1802 (nomen emend.) Cylindrophis resplendens WAGLER 1828 (fide SCHLEGEL 1844) Tortrix rufa — DE FILIPPI 1840 Cylindrophis rufa GRAY 1842 Cylindrophis rufa — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1844: 595 Cylindrophis rufa — JAN 1865 Cylindrophis rufus — STOLICZKA 1870: 183 Cylindrophis rufus — BOULENGER 1893: 134 Cylindrophis rufus — DE ROOIJ 1917: 36 Cylindrophis rufus — SMITH 1943: 96 Cylindrophis ruffus — MANTHEY & GROSSMANN 1997: 413 Cylindrophis ruffus — COX et al. 1998: 16 Cylindrophis ruffus — STUEBING & INGER 1999 Cylindrophis ruffus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 154 Cylindrophis ruffus ruffus — LANG & VOGEL 2005 Cylindrophis ruffus — NGUYEN et al. 2009 Cylindrophis ruffus ruffus — COX et al. 2012: 44 Cylindrophis ruffus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 204 Cylindrophis rufus — LILLYWHITE 2014: 15 (in error) Cylindrophis ruffus — AMARASINGHE et al. 2015 Cylindrophis mirzae AMARASINGHE, INEICH, CAMPBELL & HALLERMANN in AMARASINGHE et al. 2015 Cylindrophis mirzai AMARASINGHE et al. 2015 (see comment) |
| Distribution | Indonesia (Sumatra, Riau, Banka, Borneo, Java, Sula, Buton, Sulawesi= Celebes, Komodo, Natuna islands), W Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, China (Hainan, Fujian, Xiamen) Type locality: Java in Indonesia (Schlegel 1844). The original type locality given by Laurenti was in error, see comment. mirzae: Singapore; Type locality: Singapore |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Lectotype: BMNH 1940.3.3.1 (designated by Amarasinghe et al. 2015 who also discussed type issues further). Holotype: RMNH ?, also given as MG (Museo Gronoviano), lost fide Iskandar & Colijn 2002: 24. Lectotype: BMNH 1940.3.3.1 [burmanus] Holotype: MNHN-RA 3279, (SVL 419 mm), collected at Singapore, by Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux (1802–1841), certainly during the expedition on the vessel La Favorite (1829–1832). Paratypes (3): BMNH 1847.2.9.23, (SVL 693 mm), collected from Singapore, by A.F. Gardiner, collection date unknown; BMNH 1938.9.8.1, (SVL 580 mm), collected from Singapore, by Dr. A.G.H. Smart (Assistant Medical Advisor, Colonial Office S.W.1.), presented by Dr. H.B. Newham (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), collection date unknown; BMNH 1880.9.10.23, (SVL 298 mm), collected from Singapore, collector and the date unknown, presented by Dr. Dennis. [mirzae] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (family): The family Cylindrophiidae can be distinguished from its sister family Anomochilidae by having a mental grove, nasals in contact, and no preocular (Das et al. 2008). Diagnosis (genus): (1) relatively blunt head with minute eyes, head not distinct from neck, bearing a mental groove; (2) absence of true gastrosteges, with ventral scales only slightly larger than or equal in size to dorsal scales; (3) presence of a pair of pelvic spurs (= cloacal spurs) in both sexes; (4) a very short tail, often with conspicuous ventral coloration; and (5) contrasting light and dark ventral blotching (de Rooij 1917; Smith 1943; Taylor 1965; Greene 1973, Kieckbusch et al. 2016). Original description: ““Corpore aequali, ruffo, lineis trans- versalibus albis interruptis; abdomine vario” translated to “Body uniform, red, broken white trans- verse bands; abdomen various. Lives in Surinam; housed in Gronovius’s Museum” by Adler et al. (1992). Diagnosis: Cylindrophis ruffus is distinguished from all congeners by having the following characters: 19 midbody scale rows (vs. 17 in C. engkariensis; 21 in C. isolepis, C. lineatus, C. maculatus, C. yamdena; 23 in C. aruensis, C. opisthorhodus), 186–197 ventrals (vs. 233– 275 in C. melanotus; 201–225 in C. burmanus), wide and constant bands encircling dark body (vs. dorsum uniform black with no cross bands in C. boulengeri; narrow and alternating bands on paler body in C. burmanus), an interrupted and wide band on the nape (vs. no ring on the nape in C. boulengeri; a complete and narrow ring encir- cling the nape in C. burmanus) [Amarasinghe et al. 2015: 38]. Diagnosis: Cylindrophis mirzae sp. nov. is distinguished from all congeners by having the following characters: 21 midbody scale rows (vs. 17 in C. engkariensis; 19 in C. boulengeri, C. burmanus, C. melanotus, C. ruffus; 23 in C. aruensis, C. opisthorhodus), narrow and completed lighter rings encircling the dark body at anterior and posterior parts of the body (vs. no bands on the paler back in C. isolepis and C. yamdena; lateral and middorsal stripes along the body in C. lineatus; wide and interrupted bands on the back in C. jodiae sp. nov.; two series of large reddish-brown spots along the back, which are enclosed by a black network in C. maculatus). |
| Comment | Although the name is often spelled "rufus", the original spelling by Laurenti contained a double "f". See MCDIARMID et al. (1999) for further discussion and references. Synonymy: Cylindrophis ruffus burmanus SMITH 1943 has been elevated to full species by Amarasinghe et al. 2015. Kieckbusch et al. 2016 synonymized C. mirzae with C. ruffus. The paper by Amarasinghe et al. (2015) exists in two versions, an earlier one, in which Fig. 8 lists the names of the new species as C. jodii and C. mirzai, and a revised version in which these errors have been corrected (Kieckbusch et al. 2016). Scytale scheuchzeri MERREM 1820 used to be listed as a synonym of C. ruffus (e.g. Boie 1827; Schlegel 1837; Duméril & Bibron 1844; Gray 1849; McDiarmid et al. 1999; Bauer & Wahlgren 2013; Wallach et al. 2014) but was shown not to be most likely a colubroid snake (Kieckbusch et al. 2016: 7). Etymology (mirzae): The species epithet is an eponym latinized as a noun in the genitive singular, honouring Dr. Mirza Kusrini for her generous friendship and support, for her dedication and important contributions to herpetological conservation and ecology in Indonesia. Mirza Kusrini is an Indonesian herpetologist and currently she is a lecturer at Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia and a steering committee member of IUCN Species Survival Commission Amphibian Specialist Group. Distribution: not in Hong Kong fide Francis 2021. Terra typica: Surinam (in error). Type species: Cylindrophis resplendens Wagler 1828 is the type species of the genus Cylindrophis WAGLER 1828. The genus is also the type genus of the family Cylindrophiidae. |
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