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Philodryas agassizii (JAN, 1863)

IUCN Red List - Philodryas agassizii - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Burrowing Night Snake
Portuguese: Cobra-Marrom, Cobrinha-Marrom, Falsa-Parelheira, Papa-Aranha, Parelheira-dos-Formigueiros, Parelheira-Mirim 
SynonymEirenis Agassizii JAN 1863: 260
Liopeltis brevicauda JAN 1863
Philodryas paucisquamis PETERS 1863: 286
Eirenis Agassizii — JAN 1866
Eirenis Agassizii — MÜLLER 1880
Ablabes agassizii BOULENGER 1885: 87
Ablabes Agassizii — BOULENGER 1886: 430
Contia agassizii BOULENGER 1894 (2): 259
Pseudablabes agassizii — BOULENGER 1896 (3): 126
Pseudablabes agassizii — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 252
Pseudablabes agassizii — FREIBERG 1982
Pseudablabes agassizi — CEI 1993: 656
Pseudablabes agassizii — LEYNAUD & BUCHER 1999: 32
Pseudablabes agassizii — SCROCCHI et al. 2006: 133
Pseudablabes agassizii — SAWAYA et al. 2008
Pseudablabes agassizii — MARQUES et al. 2009
Philodryas agassizi — PEREZ et al. 2012
Philodryas agassizi — HAMDAN et al. 2012
Philodryas agassizii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 549
Philodryas agassizii — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019
Philodryas agassizii — ARREDONDO et al. 2020
Pseudablabes agassizii — MELO-SAMPAIO et al. 2020 
DistributionS/SW Brazil (Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás, Bahia),
NE Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Chaco, Misiones, Santiago del Estero, Corrientes, Córdoba, San Luis, Rio Negro, Mendoza), Uruguay, S Paraguay

Type locality: "Uruguay" [in error], corrected to Paraguay (fide original data tag and MCZ Catalogue, cited in Wallach et al. 2014).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntype: MCZ R-870, a 154 mm, juvenile male, and MCZ 177823, a 347 mm male both collected by Jefferies Wyman, November 8, 1861. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): (apomorphies followed by ‘*’): head, body, and tail uniformly reticulated gray or brown, with anteriormost edge of ventrals being green coloured*; lack of deep body calyces on the proximal half of the asulcate surface of the hemipenial body*; lateral enlarged spines; distal rows of middle sized spines disposed in a typical “V-shape” configuration on the asulcate surface of the hemipenial body*; diameter of the middle of the hemipenes larger than both proximal and distal extremities; dorsal scale rows reducing anterior-posteriorly from 19 to 13 or uniformly in 13e13 in Pseudablabes agassizii; low number of ventral scales (130e184); seven supralabials; body with dorsolateral stripes and short tail (MELO-SAMPAIO et al. 2020). 
CommentSynonymy after CEI 1993.

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018).

Type species: Eirenis Agassizii JAN 1863: 260 is the type species of the genus Pseudablabes BOULENGER 1896. Note that Callirhinus has priority over Pseudablabes following the provisions given in the article 23 (ICZN 1999), but is preoccupied by Callirhinus Blanchard, 1850 (Coleoptera, given as 1851 by Williams & Wallach 1989), hence Melo-Sampaio et al. 2020 proposed the resurrection of the genus Pseudablabes for the clade containing Pseudablabes agassizii.

Phylogenetics: MELO-SAMPAIO et al. 2020 tentatively included arnaldoi within Pseudablabes (based on morphology) although they did not have any molecular data. Note that Arredondo et al. 2020 could not replicate the monophyly of Pseudablabes as defined by Melo-Sampaio et al., hence we reverted them to Philodryas. 
EtymologyNamed after Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Swiss zoologist. See Bastos & Sa 2011 for further biographical details. Note that Agassiz promoted the belief that God had created species in their exact geographical and hierarchical slots, where they remained unchanging. This anti-evolutionist notion eventually ruined his legacy (Evan McMurry, The Atlantic, Aug 2024). 
References
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