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Thelotornis mossambicanus (BOCAGE, 1895)

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Eastern Twig Or Vine Snake 
SynonymDryiophis Kirtlandii var. mossambicana BOCAGE 1895: 119
Thelotornis capensis mossambicanus — RASMUSSEN 1981: 178
Thelotornis capensis mossambicanus — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 32
Thelotornis mossambicanus — BROADLEY 2001
Thelotornis mossambicanus — RAZZETTI & MSUYA 2002
Thelotornis mossambicanus — BROADLEY et al. 2003
Thelotornis capensis mossambicanus — CIMATTI 2006
Thelotornis mossambicanus — JACOBSEN et al. 2010
Thelotornis mossambicanus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 729
Thelotornis mossambicanus — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 507 
DistributionS Somalia, SE Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, E Zimbabwe

Type locality: "Manica, Mozambique" [= Mozambique],
= lectotype locality.  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesLectotype: MB (Museu Bocage) 1843 (A. Ennes), designated by Broadley (1979: 129), destroyed by fire 18 March 1978. 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (1258 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Hybridization: mossambicanus is intergrading wit oatesi and capensis in E Zimbabwe and S Mozambique (Broadley 1979; BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991).
Derleyn (1978) had described T. c. schilsi from the Ruzizi plain in Burundi, but this form is known from only a few specimens and differs from T. c. mossambicanus only in its shorter tail and consequently lower subcaudal counts.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality. 
References
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  • Bates, Michael F. 2018. Catalogue of reptiles from Mozambique in the collection of the National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Indago 34 (2): 135–147
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  • Bennefield, B. I. 1982. Combat and Mating in the Vine Snake, Thelotornis capensis mossambicana. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (28): 13-14 - get paper here
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  • BROADLEY, D. G. 2001. A review of the genus Thelotornis A. Smith in eastern Africa, with the description of a new species from the Usambara mountains (Serpentes: Colubridae: Dispholidini). African Journal of Herpetology 50 (2): 53-70 - get paper here
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