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Lampropeltis abnorma (BOCOURT, 1886)

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Lampropeltini, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Honduran milk snake
G: Pazifik-Dreiecksnatter [oligozona]
G: Honduras-Dreiecksnatter [hondurensis]
S: Falsa Coralillo de Guatemala 
SynonymCoronella formosa var. anomala BOCOURT 1886: 614 (preoccupied)
Coronella formosa abnorma BOCOURT 1886 (nom. subst. pro anomala)
Coronella formosa oligozona BOCOURT 1886
Lampropeltis polyzona blanchardi STUART 1935: 2
Lampropeltis triangulum blanchardi — DUNN 1937: 8
Lampropeltis triangulum abnorma — SMITH 1942: 201
Lampropeltis triangulum abnorma — SMITH 1942: 246
Lampropeltis triangulum oligozona — SMITH 1945: 202
Lampropeltis triangulum blanchardi — LAURENT 1949: 12
Lampropeltis doliata blanchardi — HALL 1951
Lampropeltis doliata oligozona — MERTENS 1956
Lampropeltis triangulum abnorma — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 138
Lampropeltis triangulum oligozona — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970
Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis WILLIAMS 1978: 212
Lampropeltis triangulum stuarti WILLIAMS 1978
Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis — MEHRTENS 1987: 129
Lampropeltis triangulum abnorma — WILLIAMS 1994
Lampropeltis triangulum blanchardi — WILLIAMS 1994
Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis — WILLIAMS 1994
Lampropeltis triangulum — CAMPBELL 1998
Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis — HALLMEN 2005
Lampropeltis triangulum stuarti — HERTZ et al. 2009
Lampropeltis triangulum oligozona — SCHMIDT 2011
Lampropeltis triangulum — GUERRA-CENTENO et al. 2012
Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis — LAITA 2013
Lampropeltis abnorma — RUANE et al. 2014
Lampropeltis triangulum oligozona — ILLESCAS-APARICIO et al. 2016
Lampropeltis polyzona — CHAMBERS & HILLIS 2019
Lampropeltis abnorma — MARTÍNEZ-FONSECA et al. 2024 
DistributionMexico (S Veracruz, SE Guerrero; possibly Chiapas, Oaxaca, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Yucatan), Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, W Costa Rica; possibly Belize and El Salvador

previously recognized subspecies of L. triangulum:

abnorma: Guatemala; Type locality, "Haute Vera Paz" (= Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

blanchardi: Mexico (Yucatan); Type locality: "Valladolid Trail near Chichen Itzi, Yucatan, Mexico."

hondurensis: carribbean side of Honduras, Nicaragua, NE Costa Rica; Type locality: "Cukra, Departmento de Zelaya,Nicaragua."

oligozona: Oaxaca, Chiapas (Mexico), Esquintla (Guatemala); Type locality: “Tehuantepec" and "western slopes of Guatemala”.

stuarti: El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, NW Costa Rica (pacific side); Type locality: "Finca Los Cedros (100 m), Tecla, Departmento La Libertad, El Salvador."  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 1888.0129, adult female, date of collection unknown, collected by M.F.Bocourt
Holotype: USNM 68239, young male [blanchardi]
Holotype: UMMZ 68239 [blanchardi]
Holotype: AMNH 12676, adult female [hondurensis]
Syntypes: MNHN 6083, 4428, 88-126-128; Lectotype: MNHN 6083, adult male (designated by WILLIAMS 1978) [oligozona]
Holotype: SMF 43166, adult female [stuarti] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (3088 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970, WILLIAMS 1994, and RUANE et al. 2014.  Listed as synonym of Lampropeltis triangulum by WALLACH et al. 2014: 359. Chambers and Hillis 2019 consider L. abnorma and L. micropholis as populations within L. polyzona, i.e. “a monophyletic cluster with little resolution.” (but see apparently allopatric distribution in their Figure 3c).

Illustrations: L.t.hondurensis in SCHMIDT (2004). Love (2012) shows a bicephalic L. t. hondurensis.

Distribution: See map in Chambers and Hillis 2019: 190 (Fig. 3). 
References
  • Aguilar-López JL, Luría-Manzano R, Pineda E, Canseco-Márquez L 2021. Selva Zoque, Mexico: an important Mesoamerican tropical region for reptile species diversity and conservation. ZooKeys 1054: 127-153 - get paper here
  • Bocourt, M. F. 1886. In A. Duméril, M. F. Bocourt, and F. Mocquard, (1870-1909), Etudes sur les reptiles, p. i-xiv, 1-1012. In Recherches Zoologiques pour servir a l'Histoire de Ia Faune de l'Amérique Centrale et du Mexique. Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale, Recherches zoologiques. Part 2, sect. 1. Imprimerie Impériale, Paris, Vol. 3 - get paper here
  • Brown, T. W. 2018. Lampropeltis abnorma (Colubridae; Squamata): Documenting a Regurgitated Prey Item from Cusuco National Park, Honduras. Captive & Field Herpetology 2 (1): 25-28 - get paper here
  • Campbell, J.A. 1998. Amphibians and reptiles of northern Guatemala, the Yucatán, and Belize. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, xiii + 380 pp. - get paper here
  • Chambers, E Anne; David M Hillis 2019. The Multispecies Coalescent Over-Splits Species in the Case of Geographically Widespread Taxa. Systematic Biology 69 (1): 184–193 [print version dated 2020] - get paper here
  • Dunn, Emmett Reid 1937. Notes on tropical Lampropeltis. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (353): 1-11 - get paper here
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  • Ruane, Sara; Robert W. Bryson, Jr., R. Alexander Pyron, and Frank T. Burbrink 2014. Coalescent Species Delimitation in Milksnakes (genus Lampropeltis) and Impacts on Phylogenetic Comparative Analyses. Systematic Biology 63 (2): 231-250, doi:10.1093/sysbio/syt099 - get paper here
  • Sasa, M., Arias, E., & Chaves, G. 2025. Annotated list of amphibians and reptiles of Costa Rica: The role of the Museum of Zoology in cataloging the country’s herpetological diversity. Revista de Biología Tropical, 73(S2): e64536-e64536 - get paper here
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  • Solís, J. M., L. D. Wilson, and J. H. Townsend. 2014. An updated list of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with comments on their nomenclature. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1: 123–144 - get paper here
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