Lycodonomorphus rufulus (LICHTENSTEIN, 1823)

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Higher Taxa	Lamprophiidae (Boaedontini), Elapoidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Common Water Snake, Common Brown Water Snake, Olive-brown Water-Snake, South African Rufous Snake
Synonym	Coluber rufulus LICHTENSTEIN 1823: 105 Coluber rufulus — FITZINGER 1826: 57 Coronella Leucopilus SMITH 1831: 17 Coronella rufula — SCHLEGEL 1837: 74 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — FITZINGER 1843: 27 Lamprophis rufulus — SMITH 1847: 58 Ablabes rufula — DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 308 Lamprophis rufulus — JAN 1866 Ablabophis rufulus — BOULENGER 1893: 318 Ablabophis rufulus — FITZSIMONS 1912: 82 Ablabophus — MITCHELL 1950: 53 (in error) Lycodonomorphus rufulus — FITZSIMONS 1957: 387 Lycodonomorphus rufulus rufulus — FITZSIMONS 1966 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — AUERBACH 1987: 155 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — BROADLEY 1990: 486 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — BOYCOTT 1992 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — BROADLEY & BLAYLOCK 2013 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — BATES et al. 2014: 368 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 406 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — KEATES et al. 2022 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — BROADLEY 1990: 486 Lycodonomorphus rufulus — STANDER 2023: 282
Distribution	Zimbabwe, S Mozambique, Republic of South Africa (Eastern Cape), Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, Natal, Botswana, Malawi Type locality: Africa australis = South Africa
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: ZMB 1759
Diagnosis	Diagnosis (genus): Distributed throughout central, east and southern Africa, this largely aquatic genus is diagnosed by the following combination of characters: body cylindrical and moderately elongated; tail moderately to short; head moderate to small, slightly broader than neck and distinct from it; eye moderate, with vertically elliptical, sub-circular to round pupil; midbody scale rows 19–23 (rarely 25), vertebral row not enlarged; dorsal scales smooth, without apical pits or with two pits; ventrals152–196, without lateral keel; subcaudals paired, 37–89; anal entire (exceptionally divided); maxilla with 18–25 teeth, subequal or slightly smaller or larger posteriorly, diastema absent; hemipenis unforked or very shallowly forked, shaft with feeble basal spines arranged in diagonal rows which change to chevrons distally,spines decrease in size distally; sulcus centrifugal, dividing approximately half way up shaft (Bogert 1940; Broadley 1990; Branch 1998). After KELLY et al. 2011 (See their Table 4 for additional data). Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about less than half a page) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material.
Comment	Synonymy: mostly after LOVERIDGE 1959. Subspecies: Lycodonomorphus rufulus mlanjensis LOVERIDGE 1953 is now treated as valid species. Type species: Coronella rufula LICHTENSTEIN 1823 is the type species of the genus Lycodonomorphus FITZINGER 1843 (and of Ablabophis BOULENGER 1893). Diet: frogs, fish Habitat. Restricted by their diet to marshy ground or the vicinity of swamps, pools, and rivers. Distribution: for a map of the genus see Tiutenko et al. 2022: 258 (Fig. 12).
Etymology	The genus was named after Greek lykos (λύκος), wolf + Greek odous (ὀδούς), tooth + Greek morphos (μορφόος), form. [?].
References	Auerbach, R.D. 1987. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Botswana. Mokwepa Consultants, Botswana, 295 pp. Bates, M.F.; Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M.; Burger, M., Marais, J.; Alexander, G.J. & de Villliers, M.S. (eds.) 2014. Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Suricata 1. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, 512 pp. Bauer, A.M. 2000. Comments on the types and type localities of South African reptiles collected by Heinrich Bergius and Ludwig Krebs. African Journal of Herpetology 49:53-60 - get paper here Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. London (Taylor & Francis), 448 pp. - get paper here Boycott, R.C. 1992. An Annotated Checklist of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Swaziland. The Conservation Trust of Swaziland - get paper here Branch, William R. 1993. A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 144 S. Broadley, D. & Blaylock 2013. The Snakes of Zimbabwe and Botswana. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 387 pp. [book review in Sauria 35 (2): 59 and Copeia 2014: 388] - get paper here Broadley, D.G. 1959. The herpetology of Southern Rhodesia. Part I--the snakes. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 120 (1): 1-100 [reprint 1972] - get paper here Broadley, D.G. 1962. On some reptile collections from the North-Western and North-Eastern Districts of Southern Rhodesia 1958-1961, with descriptions of four new lizards. Occ. Pap. Nat. Mus. South. Rhodesia 26 (B): 787-843 Broadley, D.G. 1967. A review of the genus Lycodonomorphus Fitzinger (Serpentes: Colubridae) in southeastern Africa, with a key to the genus. Arnoldia 3 (16): 1-9 Broadley, Donald G. and F. P. D. Cotterill. 2004. The reptiles of southeast Katanga, an overlooked 'hot spot'. [Congo]. African Journal of Herpetology 53 (1): 35-61. - get paper here Conradie, Werner; Brain Reeves, Sandile Mdoko, Lwandiso Pamla, Oyama Gxabhu 2020. Herpetological survey of the Ongeluksnek (Malekgalonyane) Nature Reserve on the foothills of the Drakensberg, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Herpetology Notes 13: 717-730 - get paper here Conradie, Werner; Brian Reeves , Neil Brown, & Jan A. Venter 2016. Herpetofauna of the Oviston, Commando Drift and Tsolwana nature reserves in the arid interior of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Indago 32: 81-98 - get paper here Fitzinger, L. 1826. Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften nebst einer Verwandschafts-Tafel und einem Verzeichnisse der Reptilien-Sammlung des K. K. Zoologischen Museums zu Wien. J. G. Heubner, Wien, 66 pp. - get paper here Fitzinger, L. 1843. Systema Reptilium, fasciculus primus, Amblyglossae. Braumüller et Seidel, Wien: 106 pp. - get paper here FitzSimons, V. 1957. Reptilia. Serpentes and Sauria. In: Hanström-Perbrinck, B., and G. Rudebeck, South African animal lite. Results of the Lund University Expedition in 1950-1951. Almqvist and Wiksell, Stockholm, pp. 385-405. Fitzsimons, V. 1966. A check-list, with syntopic keys, to the snakes of southern Africa. Annals Transvaal Museum 25 (3): 35-79 - get paper here Fraser M. 2023. Reptiles and Amphibians of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, Western Cape, South Africa. Biodiversity Observations 13: 162–185. 14 March 2023 - get paper here Haagner, G.V. 1992. Life History Notes - Lycodonomorphus rufulus. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (41): 42-42 - get paper here Hörold, R. 2018. Hausschlangen – versteckte Vielfalt. Reptilia 23 (129): 16-22 Jan, G. 1866. Iconographie générale des ophidiens. 17. Livraison. J.B. Bailière et Fils, Paris - get paper here Kopij, G. 2026. Vertebrate Fauna of Lesotho: An Ecological Monograph. Cambridge Scholars Publishing - get paper here Lichtenstein, H. 1823. Verzeichniss der Doubletten des zoologischen Museums der Königl. Universität zu Berlin nebst Beschreibung vieler bisher unbekannter Arten von Säugethieren, Vögeln, Amphibien und Fischen. Königl. Preuss. Akad. Wiss./ T. Trautwein, Berlin. x, 118 pages - get paper here Loveridge,A. 1958. Revision of five african snake genera. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 119: 1-198 (141) - get paper here Marais, J. 2004. A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa, 2nd ed. Struik Publishers, 312 pp. Mitchell, B.L. 1950. Some reptiles and amphibians of Nyasaland. The Nyasaland Journal 3 (2): 46-57 - get paper here Phelps, Tony 2002. A study of the Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with particular reference to long-term-refugia. Herpetological Bulletin (80): 7-19 - get paper here Pienaar, Uys de Villiers 1978. The Reptile Fauna of the Kruger National Park. Pretoria: National Parks Board of South Africa, i-vii, 222 S. Reeves, B., Brooke, C. F., Venter, J. A., & Conradie, W. 2022. The Reptiles and Amphibians of the Mpofu-Fort Fordyce Nature Reserve Complex in the Winterberg Mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. African Journal of Wildlife Research, 52(1) - get paper here SCHMIDT, W. 2011. Lycodonomorphus rufulus (Lichtenstein, 1823) Diet. African Herp News (54): 15-17 - get paper here Smith, A. 1831. Contributions to the natural history of South Africa, No. 1. South African Quart. J. (1) 2 (5) 5: 9-24. Smith, A. 1847. Illustrations of the zoology of South Africa, Reptilia. Smith, Elder, and Co., London - get paper here Smith, A. 1849. Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa. 3 (Reptiles). Smith, Elder, and Co., London [facsimile published by Winchester Press, Johannesburg, 1977] - get paper here Stander, R.I. 2023. The Reptiles of the Limpopo Province and Kruger National Park. Herp Nomad, Polokwane, South Africa, 367 pp. - get paper here Tiutenko, A., A. Maliuk & C. Koch 2025. Generic affinities of African house snakes revised: a new genus for Lamprophis inornatus (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae: Lamprophiinae: Boaedontini). Salamandra 61 (2): 215-239 Tiutenko, A., Koch, C., Pabijan, M., & Zinenko, O. 2022. Generic affinities of African house snakes revised: a new genus for Boodon erlangeri (Serpentes: Elapoidea: Lamprophiidae: Lamprophiinae). SALAMANDRA, 58(4), 235-262 - get paper here Tolley, K.A., Conradie, W., Pietersen, D.W., Weeber, J., Burger, M. & Alexander, G.J. (eds) 2023. Conservation status of the reptiles of South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. Suricata 10. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria - get paper here Venter, Jan A.; Werner Conradie 2015. A checklist of the reptiles and amphibians found in protected areas along the South African Wild Coast, with notes on conservation implications. Koedoe 57 (1): 1-25. doi: 10.4102/koedoe.v57i1.1247 - get paper here Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams, Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp. Wilkey, Rupert & Sarah Nann 2025. Field Guide to the Snakes of Eswatini. Pelagic, 208 pp., DOI: 10.53061/FWDV3720 - get paper here Wyk, Kurt M van; Bryan Maritz & Bruce W Clegg 2025. Distribution and status of reptile species in south-eastern Zimbabwe. African Journal of Herpetology, 74:2, 210-270, - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.sntc.org.sz/biodiversity/sdreptiles.asp http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/reptiles/squamata/serpentes/colubridae… Google images

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