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Macroprotodon brevis (GÜNTHER, 1862)

IUCN Red List - Macroprotodon brevis - Near Threatened, NT
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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
SubspeciesMacroprotodon brevis brevis (GÜNTHER 1862)
Macroprotodon brevis ibericus BUSACK & MCCOY 1990 
Common NamesE: Western False Smooth Snake, Iberian False Smooth Snake 
SynonymCoronella brevis GÜNTHER 1862: 58
Macroprotodon maroccanus PETERS 1882: 27
Macroprotodon cucullatus brevis — BAUER et al. 1995: 72
Macroprotodon brevis — CARRANZA et al. 2004
Macroprotodon brevis — MONTORI et al. 2005
Macroprotodon brevis — SPEYBROECK 2007
Macroprotodon cucullatus brevis — GRUBER 2009: 115
Macroprotodon brevis — SCHLÜTER 2009
Macroprotodon brevis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 419
Macroprotodon textilis brevis — TRAPE 2023: 544

Macroprotodon brevis ibericus BUSACK & MCCOY 1990
Macroprotodon cucullatus ibericus — MALKMUS 1995
Macroprotodon cucullatus ibericus — VAND ER VOORT 2004
Macroprotodon brevis ibericus — CARRANZA et al. 2004
Macroprotodon brevis ibericus — LANTERMANN & LANTERMANN 2015
Macroprotodon textilis ibericus — TRAPE 2023: 544 
DistributionMorocco, Algeria, Gibraltar

Type locality: “small Island (without name) off the coast of Mogador”.

ibericus: Iberian Peninsula, Portugal (but WADE 1988 states that this area is inhabited by cucullatus), Spain  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.1.9.87 (R.T. Lowe, 1858–1861).
Holotype: CM 53178, collected 17 May 1970 by Stephen D. Busack [ibericus] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (896 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentIllustration of M. c. brevis in Schlüter (2004). Grossmann & Schräder 2019 call a snake Coronella girondica while it is a mis-identified Macroprotodon brevis.

CARRANZA et al. (2004) recognizes 4 species of Macroprotodon: M. cucullatus, M. brevis, M. mauritanicus, and M. abubakeri WADE 2001. They also recognized the subspecies M. b. brevis and M. b. ibericus and M. c. cucullatus and M. c. textilis while WADE (2001) synonymizes ibericus with brevis. In fact, CARRANZA et al. (2004) suggested that the textilis clade is paraphyletic with brevis and both could be renamed “textilis” as this is the older name.

Distribution: Not in Mauritania fide Padial (pers. comm.). For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin “brevis, -e” = short.

M. b. ibericus was named after its occurrence on the Iberian peninsula. 
References
  • Bauer, A.M.; Günther,R. & Klipfel,M. 1995. The herpetological contributions of Wilhelm C.H. Peters (1815-1883). SSAR Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology, 714 pp.
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  • Busack S D. & MCCOY C J. 1990. Distribution variation and biology of Macroprotodon cucullatus (Reptilia: Colubridae: Boiginae). Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 59 (4): 261-286. - get paper here
  • Busack, S.D. & Lawson, R. 2008. Morphological, mitochondrial DNA and allozyme evolution in representative amphibians and reptiles inhabiting each side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 94, 445–461 - get paper here
  • Carranza, S.; E.N. Arnold; E. Wade and S. Fahd 2004. Phylogeography of the false smooth snakes, Macroprotodon (Serpentes, Colubridae): mitochondrial DNA sequences show European populations arrived recently from Northwest Africa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33 (3): 523-532 - get paper here
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