Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
Subspecies | |
Common Names | E: Williams' Ground Snake |
Synonym | Urotheca williamsi ROZE 1958: 1 Urotheca williamsi — ROZE 1964 Rhadinaea williamsi — LANCINI 1979 Liophis williamsi — DIXON 1980 Liophis williamsi — KORNACKER 1999: 110 Erythrolamprus williamsi — GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012 Liophis williamsi — WALLACH et al. 2014: 387 |
Distribution | Venezuela
Type locality: El Junquito, Distrito Federal, Venezuela, elevation 1900 m.
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Reproduction | oviparous |
Types | Holotype: MCZ 51329; Paratypes: (n=3) USNM 121206, male, collected in Colonia Tovar, estado Aragua, Venezuela, 1800 meters, by E. G. Holt on March 30, 1929; CM 7393, male, collected in Colonia Tovar, estado Aragua, Venezuela, 1800 meters, by E. G. Holt on April 30, 1929; MBUCV 3044, female, collected in Rancho Grande, estado Aragua, Venezuela, 1200 meters, by J. Racenis on August 23, 1949. |
Diagnosis | Diagnosis: “Urotheca with one scale pit on the dorsals ; 17-18+2 maxillary teeth ; 146 to 158 ventrals ; 53 to 61 subcaudals ; 17-17 dorsals, without any reduction ; 1 or 2 preoculars, and a Leimadophis-like coloration : dark longitudinal lateral lines beginning on the anterior part of the body and extending to the tip of the tail.” |
Comment | Synonymy: Roze 1958 listed Leimadophis bimaculatus opisthotaenia as a synonym of Urotheca williamsi. He says that “the holotype and the MBUCV specimen have been reported by Marcuzzi, 1950, as Leimadophis bimaculatus opisthotaenia, but this is an error, since the latter species is a form from the Andes of Mérida, Venezuela, and is a true Leimadophis”.
Abundance: Rare. |
Etymology | Named after Dr. Ernest Edward Williams (1914-1998), a herpetologist, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard. |
References |
- Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
- Dixon J R 1983. Systematics of Liophis reginae and L. williamsi (Serpentes, Colubridae), with a description of a new species. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 52 (6): 113-138 - get paper here
- Dixon, J. R. 1980. The neotropical colubrid snake genus Liophis. The generic concept. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology 31: 1-40 - get paper here
- Dixon, James R. 1989. A key and checklist to the neotropical snake genus Liophis with country lists and maps. Smithsonian Herp. Inf. Serv. (79): 1-40 - get paper here
- Grazziotin, Felipe G.; Hussam Zaher, Robert W. Murphy, Gustavo Scrocchi, Marco A. Benavides, Ya-Ping Zhang and Sandro L. Bonatto 2012. Molecular phylogeny of the New World Dipsadidae (Serpentes: Colubroidea): a reappraisal. Cladistics DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00393.x - get paper here
- Kornacker,P.M. 1999. Checklist and key to the snakes of Venezuela. PaKo-Verlag, Rheinbach, Germany, 270 pp.
- Lancini V., A.R. 1979. Serpientes de Venezuela. Editorial Ernesto Armitano, Caracas.
- Lancini,A.R. & Kornacker,P.M. 1989. Die Schlangen von Venezuela. Armitano Editores C.A., Caracas, 1-381
- Natera-Mumaw, Marco; Luis Felipe Esqueda-González & Manuel Castelaín-Fernández 2015. Atlas Serpientes de Venezuela. Santiago de Chile, Dimacofi Negocios Avanzados S.A., 456 pp. - get paper here
- RIVAS, GILSON A.; CÉSAR R. MOLINA, GABRIEL N. UGUETO, TITO R. BARROS, CÉSAR L. BAR- RIO-AMORÓS & PHILIPPE J. R. KOK 2012. Reptiles of Venezuela: an updated and commented checklist. Zootaxa 3211: 1–64 - get paper here
- Roze, Janis A 1964. The snakes of the Leimadophis-Urotheca-Liophis complex from Parque Nacional Henri Pitter (Rancho Grande), Venezuela, with a description of a new genus and species. Senckenbergiana Biologica 45 (3/5): 533-542
- Roze,J.A. 1958. A new species of the genus Urotheca (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Venezuela. Breviora (88): 1-5 - get paper here
- Test, Frederic H.;Sexton, Owen J.;Heatwole, Harold 1966. Reptiles of Rancho Grande and vicinity, Estado Aragua, Venezuela. Miscellaneous publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (128): 1-63 - 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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