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Hypoptophis wilsonii BOULENGER, 1908

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Higher TaxaAtractaspididae (Aparallactinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Wedge-Snouted Burrowing Snake, African Bighead Snake 
SynonymHypoptophis wilsonii BOULENGER 1908: 93
Michellia katangae MÜLLER 1911: 358
Hypoptophis wilsoni wilsoni — DE WITTE & LAURENT 1947: 92
Hypoptophis wilsoni katangae — DE WITTE & LAURENT 1947: 93
Hypoptophis wilsoni — BROADLEY 1998
Hypoptophis wilsonii — BROADLEY et al. 2003: 91
Hypoptophis wilsonii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 343
Hypoptophis wilsoni — BRANCH et al. 2019
Hypoptophis wilsoni — TRAPE 2023: 494 
DistributionS Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Zambia, Angola

Type locality: “Inkongo, on the Sankuru River, int he Kassai Province of the Congo”  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesType: BMNH 1946.1.2.99 (and possibly additional specimens).
Holotype: ZSM 525/1911 (lost), juvenile [Michellia katangae] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): Maxillary very short, with four teeth gradually increasing in size and followed, after an interspace, by a pair of large grooved fangs situated below the eye ; anterior mandibular teeth slightly enlarged. Head small, not distinct from neck snout much depressed and very prominent rostral very large, with obtuse horizontal edge, concave below eye very small, with vertically elliptic pupil nostril in a semi-divided nasal; no loreal; a præocular in contact with the nasal. Body cylindrical scales smooth, without pits, in 15 rows ventrals rounded. Tail short ; subcaudals single.” (Boulenger 1908: 93)


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CommentVenomous!

Type species: Hypoptophis wilsonii BOULENGER 1908 is the type species of the genus Hypoptophis BOULENGER 1908: 9

Phylogenetics: see Portillo et al. 2018 for a phylogenetic analysis of members of Aparallactinae, inlcuding members of Hypoptophis. 
Etymologynamed after the collector of the types, Mr. H. Wilson. 
References
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Boulenger, GEORGE A. 1908. Description of three new snakes from Africa. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) 2: 93-94 - get paper here
  • Branch, William R.; Pedro Vaz Pinto, Ninda Baptista, and Werner Conradie 2019. The Reptiles of Angola: History, Diversity, Endemism and Hotspots. Chapter 13 in: B. J. Huntley et al. (eds.), Biodiversity of Angola. Springer Verlag, pp. 283-334 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1960. Hypoptophis wilsoni, a new addition to the snakes of Northern Rhodesia. J. Herp. Assoc. Rhodesia 13: 5–6 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1998. The reptilian fauna of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa). In: Schmidt, K.P. and Noble, G.K., Contributions to the Herpetology of the Belgian Congo... [reprint of the 1919 and 1923 papers]. SSAR Facsimile reprints in Herpetology, 780 pp.
  • Broadley, D.G.; Doria, C.T. & Wigge, J. 2003. Snakes of Zambia. An Atlas and Field Guide. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 280 pp. [review in Sauria 26 (3): 21]
  • Broadley, Donald G. and F. P. D. Cotterill. 2004. The reptiles of southeast Katanga, an overlooked 'hot spot'. [Congo]. African Journal of Herpetology 53 (1): 35-61. - get paper here
  • Chifundera, K. 1990. Snakes of Zaire and their bites. Afr. Stud. Monogr. (Kyoto) 10(3): 137-157.
  • 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
  • Marques, Mariana P.; Luis M. P. Ceríaco , David C. Blackburn , and Aaron M. Bauer 2018. Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola -- Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840–2017). Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (Ser. 4) 65: 1-501 (Supplement II)
  • Müller, L. 1911. Zwei neue Schlangen aus dem Katangadistrikt, Kongostaat. Zool. Anz. 38: 357-360 - get paper here
  • Pietersen, Darren, Verburgt, Luke & Davies, John 2021. Snakes and other reptiles of Zambia and Malawi. Struik Nature / Penguin Random House South Africa, 376 pp., ISBN 9781775847373
  • Portillo, F., Branch, W.R., Conradie, W., Rödel, M-O., Penner, J., Barej, M.F., Kusamba, C., Muninga, W.M., Aristote, M.M., Bauer, A.M., Trape, J-F., Nagy, Z.T., Carlino, P., Pauwels, O.S.G., Menegon, M., Burger, M., Mazuch, T., Jackson, K., Hughes, 2018. Phylogeny and biogeography of the African burrowing snake subfamily Aparallactinae (Squamata: Lamprophiidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution - get paper here
  • Trape, J.-F. 2023. Guide des serpents d’Afrique occidentale, centrale et d’Afrique du Nord. IRD Éditions, Marseille, 896 pp.
  • 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.
  • Witte, G. F. de & LAURENT,R.F. 1947. Revision d'un groupe de Colubridae africains: genres Calamelaps, Miodon, Aparallactus, et formes affines. Mém. Mus. Roy. Hist. Nat. Belgique (sér. 2) 29: 1-134
 
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