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Boaedon virgatus (HALLOWELL, 1854)

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Higher TaxaLamprophiidae (Boaedontini), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Hallowell's House Snake, Dark-bellied House Snake 
SynonymCoelopeltis virgata HALLOWELL 1854: 98
Boaedon nigrum FISCHER 1856: 91
Boodon ventralis GÜNTHER 1888: 329
Boodon virgatus — BOULENGER 1893: 331
Boaedon lineatus virgatus — LOVERIDGE 1941: 120
Boaedon virgatum — MENZIES 1966
Boaedon virgatum — HÅKANSSON 1981
Lamprophis virgatus — LAWSON 1993
Boaedon virgatus — RÖDEL & MAHSBERG 2000: 28
Lamprophis virgatus — PAUWELS et al. 2002
Boaedon virgatus — KELLY et al. 2011
Lamprophis virgatus — SEGNIAGBETO et al. 2012
Lamprophis virgatus — HUGHES 2013
Boaedon virgatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 97
Boaedon virgatus — SENTER & CHIPPAUX 2022 
DistributionGuinea (Conakry), Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin ?, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, W Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo (Brazzaville), Gambia (HÅKANSSON 1981), Sierra Leone
São Tomé, Principe (www.triplov.com, see URL below).

Type locality: “Liberia, west coast of Africa” (Hallowell 1854); “Gaboon” fide Malnate 1971.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: ANSP 10260-62 (3), collected or presented by “Dr. Ford”. 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (854 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentTypes: ANSP 10260-62 are the same specimens as the types of Boaedon quadrivirgatum Hallowell. Type of Boaedon nigrum: ZMH R08378 (from São Tomé).

Distribution: For a map with localities in Equatorial Guinea see SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS et al. 2022. Not reported from Benin according to ULLENBRUCH et al. 2010. 
EtymologyNamed after the Latin virgatus, meaning "striped" or "streaked," from virga meaning "streak," likely due to the two narrow yellowish stripes (vitta) on each side of the head of this species. 
References
  • Barnett, Linda K. & Emms, Craig 2005. Common reptiles of The Gambia. Rare Repro, Hailsham, East Sussex, 24 pp.
  • Böhme, Wolfgang, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Christian Brede & Philipp Wagner 2011. The reptiles (Testudines, Squamata, Crocodylia) of the forested southeast of the Republic Guinea (Guinée forestière), with a country-wide checklist. Bonn zoological Bulletin 60 (1): 35-61 - 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
  • Chifundera, K. 1990. Snakes of Zaire and their bites. Afr. Stud. Monogr. (Kyoto) 10(3): 137-157.
  • Chippaux, J.P. 2001. Les serpents d’Afrique occidentale et centrale, 2nd ed. Paris (IRD editions), 292 pp. [critical book review in Herp. Rev. 34: 272] - get paper here
  • Chippaux, Jean-Philippe & Kate Jackson 2019. Snakes of Central and Western Africa. Johns Hopkins University Press, 448 pp. [detaileld review in HR 51 (1): 161] - get paper here
  • Chirio, L. & Lebreton, M. 2007. Atlas des reptiles du Cameroun. MNHN, IRD, Paris 688 pp.
  • Fischer, J.G. 1856. Neue Schlangen des Hamburgischen Naturhistorischen Museums. Abhandl. Nat. Ver. Hamburg 3 (4): 79-116 - get paper here
  • Greenbaum, Eli; Frank Portillo, Kate Jackson & Chifundera Kusamba 2015. A phylogeny of Central African Boaedon (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae), with the description of a new cryptic species from the Albertine Rift. African Journal of Herpetology 64 (1): 18–38 - get paper here
  • Günther,A. 1888. Contribution to the knowledge of snakes of tropical Africa. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6) 1: 322-335 - get paper here
  • Håkansson,N.T. 1981. An annotated checklist of reptiles known to occur in the Gambia. Journal of Herpetology 15 (2): 155-161 - get paper here
  • Hallowell,E. 1854. Remarks on the geographical distribution of reptiles, with descriptions of several species supposed to be new, and corrections of former papers. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1854: 98-105 - get paper here
  • Hughes, B. 2013. Snakes of Bénin, West Africa. Bull. Soc. Herp. France 144: 101-159
  • Kelly, Christopher M.R.; William R. Branch, Donald G. Broadley, Nigel P. Barker, Martin H. Villet 2011. Molecular systematics of the African snake family Lamprophiidae Fitzinger, 1843 (Serpentes: Elapoidea), with particular focus on the genera Lamprophis Fitzinger 1843 and Mehelya Csiki 1903. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 58(3): 415-426 - get paper here
  • Lawson, Dwight P. 1993. The reptiles and amphibians of the Korup National Park Project, Cameroon. Herpetological Natural History 1 (2): 27-90
  • Lobón-Rovira, Javier; Ninda L. Baptista, Tyron Clark, Luke Verburgt, Greg Jongsma, Werner Conradie, Luis Veríssimo & Pedro Vaz Pinto (0 Jan 2025. Filling the gaps: herpetological checklist of Mayombe National Park and Cabinda Province (Angola) shed light on one of the most unexplored corners of tropical Central Africa, African Journal of Herpetology, - get paper here
  • Loveridge, A. 1938. On a collection of reptiles and amphibians from Liberia. Proc. New England Zool. Club 17: 49-74
  • Loveridge, Arthur 1941. Report on the Smithsonian-Firestone Expedition's collection of reptiles and amphibians from Liberia. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 91 (3128): 113-140 - get paper here
  • Malnate, Edmond V. 1971. A catalogue of primary types in the Herpetological Collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (ANSP). Proccedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 123 (9): 345-375 - get paper here
  • Menzies, J.I. 1966. The snakes of Sierra Leone. Copeia 1966 (2): 169-179. - get paper here
  • Pauwels, O.S.G. & Vande Weghe, J.P. 2008. Les reptiles du Gabon. Smithsonian Institution, Washington: 272 pp. - get paper here
  • Pauwels, O.S.G.; Kamdem Toham, A. & Chimsunchart, C. 2002. Recherches sur l’herpétofaune du Massif du Chaillu, Gabon. Bull. Inst. Roy. Sci. Nat. Belgique (Biologie) 72: 47-57 - get paper here
  • Rödel M O; Mahsberg D 2000. Vorläufige Liste der Schlangen des Tai-Nationalparks/Elfenbeinküste und angrenzender Gebiete. Salamandra 36 (1): 25-38 - get paper here
  • SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS, A., CALVO-REVUELTA, M. & DE LA RIVA, I. 2022. Synopsis of the terrestrial Reptiles of Equatorial Guinea. Zootaxa 5202 (1): 1-197 - get paper here
  • Segniagbeto GLazcano. H., Trape J. F., David P., Ohler A., Dubois A. & Glitho I. A. 2011. The snake fauna of Togo: systematics, distribution and biogeography, with remarks on selected taxonomic problems. Zoosystema 33 (3): 325-360. DOI: 10.5252/z2011n3a4 - get paper here
  • Senter, P. J., & Chippaux, J. P. 2022. Biogeography of snakes in Liberia: Review and synthesis of current knowledge. Ghana Journal of Science, 63(1), 29-62 - get paper here
  • Trape, J.-F. 2023. Guide des serpents d’Afrique occidentale, centrale et d’Afrique du Nord. IRD Éditions, Marseille, 896 pp.
  • Trape, J.F. & R. ROUX-ESTÈVE 1995. Les serpents du Congo: liste commentée et clé de détermination. Journal of African Zoology 109 (1): 31-50
  • TRAPE, JEAN-FRANÇOIS & CELLOU BALDÉ 2014. A checklist of the snake fauna of Guinea, with taxonomic changes in the genera Philothamnus and Dipsadoboa (Colubridae) and a comparison with the snake fauna of some other West African countries. Zootaxa 3900 (3): 301–338 - 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.
 
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