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Xenodon severus (LINNAEUS, 1758)

IUCN Red List - Xenodon severus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Amazon False Fer-de-lance
Portuguese: Achatadeira, Boipeva, Cururuboia, Falsa-Jararaca, Jaçanarana, Jararaca, Pepéua 
SynonymColuber severus LINNAEUS 1758: 219
Cerastes severus — LAURENTI 1768: 84
Coluber breviceps SHAW 1802: 430
Coluber (Natrix) versicolor MERREM 1820: 95
Coluber saurocephalus WIED 1824: 668
Xenodon severus — FITZINGER 1826: 57
Xenodon severus — DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 756
Xenodon severus — BOULENGER 1894: 149
Xenodon severus — BEEBE 1946: 44
Xenodon severus — EISELT 1963: 282
Xenodon severus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 325
Xenodon severus — GASC & RODRIGUES 1980
Xenodon severus — GORZULA & SEÑARIS 1999
Xenodon severus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 786
Xenodon severus — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 
DistributionBrazil (Roraima, Amazonas, Pará, Acre), S Venezuela (e.g. Falcon: [HR 30: 115], Cojedes), SE Colombia, E Ecuador, Peru (Roraima, Amazonas, Cuzco, Huánuco, Junín, Loreto, Madre de Díos, Pasco, San Martín, Ucuyali), NE Bolivia (Beni), French Guiana, Guyana

Type locality: “Asia” (in error)  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: NRM (= NHR = RMS) Stockholm 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 1848 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous! (Minton and Minton, 1980)

Synonymy after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970.

Type species: Coluber severus LINNAEUS 1758 is the type species of the genus Xenodon FITZINGER 1824.

Williams & Wallach 1989 give multiple author combinations as the original source of the genus name Xenodon, namely Xenodon F. Boie in Fitzinger 1826: 30, 56, Boie in H. Boie, 1826: 982, and Boie in Boie 1827: 520 (Colubridae)

Xenodon is also the type genus of the tribe Xenodontini that contains Erythrolamprus, Lygophis, Xenodon, Eutrachelophis, and Baliodryas (Zaher & Prudente 2019). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin severus, unadorned, plain. (Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024)

The genus was named after Greek xenos (ξένος), strange, unusual + Greek odon (ὀδόν), tooth. Genus names ending in -odon are typically masculine. 
References
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