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Gonyosoma prasinum (BLYTH, 1855)

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Green Trinket Snake, Green Bush Rat Snake, Green Ratsnake
G: Grüne Strauchnatter, Grüne Spitzkopfnatter
Chinese: 绿锦蛇 
SynonymColuber prasinus BLYTH 1855: 291
Gonyosoma gramineum GÜNTHER 1864 (fide SMITH 1943)
Coluber prasinus — BOULENGER 1894: 59
Elaphe prasina — SMITH 1930
Elaphe prasina — SMITH 1943
Elaphe prasina — TWEEDIE 1950
Elaphe prasina — GRANDISON 1978: 288
Gonyosoma prasina — DOWLING & JENNER 1988
Elaphe prasina — SCHULZ 1996: 201
Gonyosoma prasina — DAS 1997
Elaphe prasina — MANTHEY & GROSSMANN 1997: 344
Elaphe prasina — COX et al. 1998: 53
Elaphe prasina — ORLOV et al. 2003
Gonyosoma prasinum — DAVID et al. 2004
Gonyosoma prasinum — UTIGER et al. 2005
Elaphe prasina — ZHAO 2006
Gonyosoma prasinum — ZIEGLER et al. 2007
Elaphe prasina — DAS & YAAKOB 2007
Rhadinophis prasina — BURBRINK 2007
Elaphe prasina — STUART & HEATWOLE 2008
Gonyosoma prasinum — NGUYEN et al. 2009
Rhadinophis prasinus — SCHULZ 2011
Rhadinophis prasina — ZAHER et al. 2012
Rhadinophis prasinus — DAS 2012
Rhynchophis prasinus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 655
Gonyosoma prasinum — CHEN et al. 2014
Gonyosoma prasina — CHAN-ARD et al. 2015: 168
Gonyosoma prasinus — FELDMAN et al. 2015
Gonyosoma prasinum — BOUNDY 2020 
DistributionIndia (Sikkim, Manipur, Darjeeling, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh [A. Captain, pers. comm.], Mizoram, Nagaland), NW Myanmar (= Burma), W Malaysia

Type locality: “Asám” [= Assam, India, but could be any part of north-eastern India]

gramineum: Type locality: “probably from Khasya” [= Khasi Hills, Meghalaya]  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: ZSI 7669 and ZSI 7671

Lectotype: BMNH 1946.1.10.22 (formerly IMC 7670 & BMNH 1860.3.19.1155), longest syntype 940 mm (W. Robinson), designated by Cox et al. (2013: 221), fide Wallach et al. 2014: 655. This is in error; this specimen does not belong to the original series of syntypes of Coluber prasinus but is the holotype of Gonyosoma gramineum (fide David et al. 2022).

Holotype: NHMUK 1946.1.10.22 (probably male) [gramineum] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (3932 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentDistribution: Possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012). Erroneously reported for the Andaman Islands (DAS 1999). Populations from N Thailand, West Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, China (Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hainan) are now considered to be G. coeruleum (David et al. 2022). “Probably” in Nepal, e.g. fide Schleich & Kästle (2002) but without specific records (David et al. 2022).

Synonymy: mostly following SMITH 1943 and David et al. 2022.

Behavior: diurnal.

Nomenclature: Rhadinophis is male and thus the name has to be “prasinus”.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Greek “prasinos” = green. 
References
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