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Causus rhombeatus (LICHTENSTEIN, 1823)

IUCN Red List - Causus rhombeatus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Common or Rhombic Night Adder
G: Krötenotter 
SynonymSepedon rhombeata LICHTENSTEIN 1823: 106
[Causus] rhombeatus — WAGLER 1830: 172
Causus rhombeatus — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1265
Causus rhombeatus — SCHMIDT 1923: 132
Causus rhombeatus — AUERBACH 1987: 204
Causus rhombeatus — WELCH 1994: 41
Causus rhombeatus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 233
Causus rhombeatus — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 610
Causus rhombeatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 152
Causus rhombeatus — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 574
Causus rhombeatus — PIETERSEN et al. 2021
Causus rhombeatus — STANDER 2023: 338 
DistributionAngola, Republic of South Africa, Natal, Eswatini (Swaziland), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Ethiopia, Somalia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Namibia

Type locality: Cape of Good Hope (see BAUER 2000: 55 for details).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesType: Lost, according to G. Peters In Hughes and Barry, 1969 (see BAUER 2000: 55 for details). 
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 2548 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Distribution: fide Barry Hughes (pers. comm., 26 Sep 2016); not listed for Togo by Segniagbeto et al. 2012. Not in Mauritania according to Padial (2006). Not recorded from Gabon fide PAUWELS & VANDE WEGHE 2008 (but may have been confused in Gabon with C. maculatus). Reports from Gambia and Benin may be in fact Causus maculatus (see PAUWELS & MEIRTE 1996 and HUGHES 1977, ULLENBRUCH et al. 2010). Not in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone fide TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014: 320. Not in Equatorial Guinea fide SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS et al. 2022.

Type species: Sepedon rhombeata LICHTENSTEIN 1823: 106 is the type species of the genus Causus WAGLER 1830.

Phylogenetics: for a recent phylogeny of this and related Viperinae see Šmíd & Tolley 2019.

Genome: Colston et al. 2025. 
EtymologyThe genus was named after Latin causus, a kind of Dipsas snake described by Aetius; from Greek causos (καῦσος), bilious fever; burning heat. [“…Nomen serpentis venenati Aetius XIII...”]. 
References
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