Apostolepis ambiniger (PETERS, 1869)
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Apostolepis ambiniger
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Paraguayan Blackhead Portuguese: Falsa-Coral |
| Synonym | Rhynchonyx ambiniger PETERS 1869: 438 Apostolepis ambinigra — BOULENGER 1896: 237 (unjustified emendation) Apostolepis ambiniger — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 22 Apostolepis ambinigra — BAUER et al. 1995: 74 Apostolepis ambiniger — DE LEMA 2002 Apostolepis ambinigra — WALLACH et al. 2014: 50 Apostolepis ambiniger — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Bolivia, Paraguay Type locality: “angeblich aus Paraguay” |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: ZMB 6450 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A species of Apostolepis with the following characters: (1) 15/15/15 dorsal scales; (2) preocular present, contacting nasal; (3) loreal absent; (4) temporals 1+0 or absent; (5) supralabials six, 2nd–3rd entering orbit; (6) infralabials 6–7, 1st–4th in contact with first pair of chinshields; (7) ventrals 219–244 (219–244 in males, 230–242 in females); (8) subcaudals 21–33 (28–33 in males, 21–26 in females), cloacal plate divided; (9) dorsal ground coloration uniformly red or orange with black markings; (10) ventral pattern uniformly yellow or red; (11) first 3–6 vertebrals black, nuchal collars and dorsal stripes absent; (12) distal black caudal blotch overlapping last 9–15 vertebrals and 7–11 subcaudals; (13) terminal scale white or bicolored black dorsally, white ventrally; (14) supralabial blotch large or small, up to four supralabial scales wide; (15) white blotch on rostral vestigial or absent; (16) SVL 390–600 mm, tail length 33–60 mm, tail is 8–10% of total length and SVL is 90–92% of total length (Entiauspe-Neto et al. 2021). Unfortunately 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 4455 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Synonymy: Apostolepis tenuis RUTHVEN 1927 and Rhynchonyx ambiniger vittatus COPE 1887 have been considered as synonyms of ambinigra by PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970. Distribution: see map in Entiauspe-Neto et al. 2021: 246 (Fig. 12). Not in Brazil (Guedes et al. 2023) |
| Etymology | Named after Latin ambi, around, round about; having two + Latin niger, black, dark. (Peters 1869, Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024) |
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