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Oxyrhopus formosus (WIED-NEUWIED, 1820)

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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Beautiful calico snake, False Coral Snake
Portuguese: Cobra-Coral, Cobra-Coral-Falsa, Coral, Coral-Falsa, Falsa-Coral 
SynonymColuber formosus WIED 1820: 109
Natrix occipitalis WAGLER 1824: 21
Oxyrhopus formosus — DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 1022
Oxyrhopus leucocephalus DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 1038
Oxyrhopus labialis JAN 1863: 93
Oxyrhopus submarginatus PETERS 1871: 401
Coluber formosus — GARCIA 1896: 32
Clelia peruviana GRIFFIN 1916: 204
Oxyrhopus iridescens WERNER 1927: 248
Oxyrhopus formosus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 232
Oxyrhopus formosus — GASC & RODRIGUES 1980
Oxyrhopus formosus — STARACE 1998: 300
Oxyrhopus formosus — WHITHWORTH & BEIRNE 2011
Oxyrhopus formosus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 518
Oxyrhopus formosus — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 
DistributionColombia, Venezuela (HR 30: 54), Peru, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil (Pará etc.), Argentina

Type locality: Bahia, Brazil.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: unlocated, originally a 380 mm specimen (M. zu Wied-Neuwied, 1815-1817), present location unknown (fide V. Wallach, pers. comm.)
Lectotype: ZSM 2053/0, male [Natrix occipitalis] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Cunha & Nascimenta 1983: 17 (in Portuguese)


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CommentSynonymy that of PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA (1970: 232) who state that this is “obviously a complex of forms” and that it usually has been confused with Oxyrhopus melangenys. RIVAS et al. 2012 follow MacCulloch et al. (2009) and consider the specimens reported as O. formosus from Venezuela to be O. occipitalis.

Type: unknown fide PETERS 1960.

Coloration: variable, ontogenetic changes from banded (juvenile) to uniform (adult).

Distribution: not in Venezuela but occipitalis is (Luis Esqueda, pers. comm., 21 April 2016, see also Natera-Mumaw et al. 2015). Not confirmed for Guyana (Cole et al. 2013: 321). Not in Ecuador fide Torres-Carvajal et al. 2019: 299 ff). See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin formosus, beautiful, finely formed, handsome, fair; having fine appearance or form. ( (Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024) 
References
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  • Carvajal-Cogollo, Juan E., Vladimir A. Bernal-González and Nestor Nonzoque-López. 2011. Geographic Distribution: Oxyrhopus formosus (yellow-headed calico snake). Herpetological Review 42 (3): 395 - get paper here
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