Rhabdophis swinhonis (GÜNTHER, 1868)

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Higher Taxa	Colubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Taiwan Keelback
Synonym	Tropidonotus Swinhonis GÜNTHER 1868: 420 Tropidonotus swinhoei — BOETTGER 1888: 137 (nom. emend.) Tropidonotus swinhonis — BOULENGER 1893: 218 Natrix swinhonis — STEJNEGER 1907: 293 Natrix swinhonis — MAKI 1931: 28 Rhabdophis swinhonis MALNATE 1960 Rhabdophis swinhonis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 637 Rhabdophis swinhonis — NGUYEN et al. 2025
Distribution	Taiwan Type locality: “Formosa”
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.12.76, a 635 mm female (R. Swinhoe).
Diagnosis	Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material.
Comment	Some species of this genus are venomous although we do not have information about this particular species. Diet: earthworms and toads (Yoshida et al. 2020).
Etymology	Named after Robert Swinhoe, who collected the type.
References	Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Boettger, O. 1888. Materialien zur herptologischen Fauna von China. II. Ber. Offenbach. Ver. Naturk. 26-28: 53-176 - 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 Günther, A. 1868. Sixth account of new species of snakes in the collection of the British Museum. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (4) 1: 413-429 - get paper here Günther,A. 1889. Third contribution to our knowledge of reptiles and fishes from the Upper Yangtsze-Kiang. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) 4 (21): 218-229 - get paper here Maki, M. 1931. Monograph of the Snakes of Japan. Dai-ichi Shobo, Tokyo. (1), 7, 240 pages (expanded edition 1933) - get paper here Stejneger, L. 1910. The batrachians and reptiles of Formosa. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 38: 91-114 - get paper here Stejneger, LEONHARD H. 1907. Herpetology of Japan and adjacent territory. Bull. US Natl. Mus. 58: xx, 1-577 - get paper here TAKEUCHI, HIROHIKO; HIDETOSHI OTA FLS,, HONG-SHIK OH and TSUTOMU HIKIDA 2012. Extensive genetic divergence in the East Asian natricine snake, Rhabdophis tigrinus (Serpentes: Colubridae), with special reference to prominent geographical differentiation of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in Japanese populations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 105, 395–408 - 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. Yoshida, Tatsuya; Rinako Ujiie, View ORCID ProfileAlan H. Savitzky, Teppei Jono, Takato Inoue, Naoko Yoshinaga, Shunsuke Aburaya, Wataru Aoki, Hirohiko Takeuchi, Li Ding, Qin Chen, Chengquan Cao, Tein-Shun Tsai, Anslem de Silva, Dharshani Mahaulpatha 2020. Dramatic dietary shift maintains sequestered toxins in chemically defended snakes. PNAS 117 (11) 5964-5969 - get paper here Zhao, E.M. 2006. The snakes of China [in Chinese]. Hefei, China, Anhui Sience & Technology Publ. House, Vol. I, 372 pp., Vol. II (color plates), 280 pp. Zhao,E. & Adler,K. 1993. Herpetology of China. SSAR, Oxford/Ohio, 1-522 ZHU, GUANG-XIANG; YING-YONG WANG,HIROHIKO TAKEUCHI & ER-MI ZHAO 2014. A new species of the genus Rhabdophis Fitzinger, 1843 (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China. Zootaxa 3765 (5): 469–480 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.snakesoftaiwan.com/Start_Page_EN.htm https://www.facebook.com/groups/stshc/posts/591829473041655/ Google images

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