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Eryx muelleri (BOULENGER, 1892)

IUCN Red List - Eryx muelleri - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaBoidae (Erycinae, Erycidae), Henophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Müller’s sand boa
G: Sahara Sandboa 
SynonymGongylophis Muelleri BOULENGER 1892: 74
Eryx muelleri — BOULENGER 1893: 128
Eryse muelleri subniger ANGEL 1938
Gongylophis muelleri — TOKAR 1995
Gongylophis muelleri — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 212
Gongylophis muelleri subniger — JONES 2004
Eryx muelleri — CHIRIO & INEICH 2006
Gongylophis muelleri — SEGNIAGBETO et al. 2012
Gongylophis muelleri — HUGHES 2013
Eryx muelleri — WALLACH et al. 2014: 289
Eryx muelleri — REYNOLDS & HENDERSON 2018: 35 
DistributionMauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea (Conakry), Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic

Type locality: Sennar, Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 91.11.20.2, male 
DiagnosisUnfortunately 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 1498 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentDistribution: not in Liberia (L. Chirio, pers. comm., 23 Aug 2013). Not in Sierra Leone fide TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014: 320.

Subspecies: Tokar 1995 found no geographically recognizable subspecies and treated subniger as a synonym of muelleri. 
Etymologynamed after Friedrich Müller (1834-1895), a friend and colleague of G.A. Boulenger, who worked as physician and zoologist in Basel. 
References
  • Andrijczuk, C. 2006. Das Verteidigungsverhalten der Sandboa Gongylophis muelleri (BOULENGER 1892), mit einigen Anmerkungen zur Taxonomie. Elaphe 14 (2): 52-56
  • Angel, F. 1938. Liste des reptiles de Mauritanie recueillis par la mission d'études de la biologie des Acridiens en 1936 et 1937. Description d'une sous-espèce nouvelle d'Eryx muelleri. Bull. Mus. nat. Hist. nat., Paris (sér.2) 10: 485-487. - get paper here
  • Aylmer, G. 1922. The Snakes of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone Studies 5: 7-37
  • Barnett, Linda K. & Emms, Craig 2005. Common reptiles of The Gambia. Rare Repro, Hailsham, East Sussex, 24 pp.
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Biswas, A., Ghosh, A., & Agashe, M. 2025. In ‘hot’pursuit: exploring the evolutionary ecology of labial pits in boas and pythons. Proceedings B, 292(2045), 20250199 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G. A. 1892. Description of a new snake from Nubia. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6) 9: 74-76 - 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
  • 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. 2009. Inventaire des reptiles de la région de la Réserve de Biosphère Transfrontalière du W (Niger/Bénin/Burkina Faso: Afrique de l’Ouest). [Herpetological survey of the W Transfrontier Biosphere Reserve area (Niger/Benin/Burkina Faso: West Africa]. Bull. Soc. Herp. France (132): 13-41 - get paper here
  • Chirio, L. & Lebreton, M. 2007. Atlas des reptiles du Cameroun. MNHN, IRD, Paris 688 pp.
  • Chirio, Laurent and Ivan Ineich 2006. Biogeography of the reptiles of the Central African Republic. African Journal of Herpetology 55(1):23-59. - get paper here
  • Hughes, B. 2013. Snakes of Bénin, West Africa. Bull. Soc. Herp. France 144: 101-159
  • Jones, C. 2004. Sandboas. Reptilia (Münster) 9 (47): 20-30 - get paper here
  • Jones, C. 2004. Sand Boas. Reptilia (GB) (34): 12-23 - get paper here
  • Kluge A G 1993. Calabaria and the phylogeny of erycine snakes. Zool. J. Linnean Soc. 107 (4): 293-351 - get paper here
  • Mármol, Gabriel Martínez del; Ander Izagirre-Egaña, Sonke Frahm & Marco Sassoè 2023. Herpetofauna of Mauritania: results of a field survey. Bol. Asoc. Herpetol. Esp. (2023) 34 Preprint-101 - get paper here
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Padial, J. M. 2006. COMMENTED DISTRIBUTIONAL LIST OF THE REPTILES OF MAURITANIA (WEST AFRICA). Graellsia, 62(2): 159-178 - get paper here
  • Reynolds, R. Graham and Robert W. Henderson 2018. Boas of the World (Superfamily Booidae): A Checklist With Systematic, Taxonomic, and Conservation Assessments. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology Sep 2018, Vol. 162, No. 1: 1-58. - 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
  • Sorensen, D. 1987. The genus Eryx. Bull. Chicago Herp. Soc. 23(2):21-25 - get paper here
  • Spawls, Stephen; Tomáš Mazuch & Abubakr Mohammad 2023. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of North-east Africa. Bloomsbury, 640 pp. - get paper here
  • Tokar, A A. 1995. Taxonomic revision of the genus Gongylophis Wagler 1830: G. conicus (Schneider 1801) and G. muelleri Boulenger 1892 (Serpentes Boidae). Tropical Zoology 8 (2): 347-360. - get paper here
  • Trape J-F and Mané Y. 2015. The snakes of Niger. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 9(2) [Special Section]: 39–55 (e110) - 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. & Mané, Y. 2006. Guide des serpents d’Afrique occidentale. Savane et désert. [Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger]. IRD Editions, Paris, 226 pp. - get paper here
  • Trape, Jean-François; Israël Demba Kodindo, Ali Sougoudi Djiddi, Joseph Mad-Toïngué & Clément Hinzoumbé Kerah 2020. The snakes of Chad: results of a field survey and annotated country-wide checklist. Bonn zoological Bulletin 69 (2): 367–393 - get paper here
  • Trape, Jean-François & Youssouph Mané 2017. The snakes of Mali. Bonn zoological Bulletin 66 (2): 107–133 - get paper here
  • Vignoli, Leonardo; Gabriel Hoinsoudé Segniagbeto , Edem A. Eniang , Emmanuel Hema , Fabio Petrozzi , Godfrey C. Akani , Luca Luiselli 2015. Aspects of natural history in a sand boa, Eryx muelleri (Erycidae) from arid savannahs in Burkina Faso, Togo, and Nigeria (West Africa). Journal of Natural History, DOI:10.1080/00222933.2015.1082659 - 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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