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Lampropeltis micropholis COPE, 1860

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Lampropeltini, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Ecuadorian Milksnake
S: Falsa coral interandina 
SynonymLampropeltis micropholis COPE 1860: 258
Coronella micropholis — BARBOUR & COLE 1906: 152
Coronella micropholis — DESPAX 1910: 370
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae DUNN 1937: 9
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigae — SLEVIN 1942: 474
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigae — BARBOUR & LOVERIDGE 1946 (in error)
Lampropeltis doliata gaigeae — TAYLOR 1951: 104
Lampropeltis doliata micropholis — MERTENS 1956
Lampropeltis doliata gaigeae — SMITH 1958: 223
Lampropeltis doliata micropholis — PETERS 1960
Lampropeltis triangulum micropholis — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970
Lampropeltis triangulum andesiana WILLIAMS 1978: 231
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigae — MEHRTENS 1987: 129
Lampropeltis triangulum andesiana — WILLIAMS 1994
Lampropeltis triangulum micropholis — WILLIAMS 1994: 7
Lampropeltis triagulum gaigae — FRANK 1994: 22 (in error)
Lampropeltis triangulum andesiana — BARRIO & NAVARRETE 1999
Lampropeltis triangulum micropholis — KORNACKER 1999: 93
Lampropeltis triangulum micropholis — CARRERA et al. 2009
Lampropeltis triangulum micropholis — GABIROT et al. 2012
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae — LILLYWHITE 2014: 133
Lampropeltis micropholis — RUANE et al. 2014
Lampropeltis andesiana — NATERA-MUMAW et al. 2015: 73
Lampropeltis polyzona — CHAMBERS & HILLIS 2019
Lampropeltis micropholis — CURLIS et al. 2020 
DistributionE Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador; possibly Venezuela

formerly recognized subspecies of L. triangulum are now included in L. micropholis:

andesiana: Huila (Colombia), Venezuela (Tachira, Mérida) [HR 30: 174]); Type locality,"the hills near Cali, Valle, Colombia."

gaigae: mountains in Costa Rica, Panamá; Type locality: Chiriqui, Boquete, Panama.

micropholis: Costa Rica, Panamá, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador; Type locality: Panama.

Introduced to the Galapagos Islands.  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: ANSP 3427 (micropholis)
Holotype: USNM 151732 [andesiana]
Holotype: UMMZ 57967, adult male collected 24 March 1924 by H.T. Gaige [gaigae] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (614 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970, WILLIAMS 1994, and RUANE et al. 2014. Listed as synonym of Lampropeltis triangulum by WALLACH et al. 2014: 359. Chambers and Hillis 2019 consider L. abnorma and L. micropholis as populations within L. polyzona, i.e. “a monophyletic cluster with little resolution.” (but see apparently allopatric distribution in their Figure 3c).

Distribution: The occurrence of Lampropeltis triangulum in Venezuela was reported by Roze (1966) and subsequent workers (Lancini 1979; Kornacker 1999) as the subspecies L. t. micropholis. Barrio and Navarrete (1999) clarified the subspecies identity of the Venezuelan specimens and considered them to belong to L. t. andesiana [cited after RIVAS et al. 2012]. See map in Chambers and Hillis 2019: 190 (Fig. 3).

Mimicry: Lampropeltis triangulum mimicks Micrurus bernadi, M. limbatus and M. diastema (TORRE-LORANCA et al. 2006).

Similar species: Erythrolamprus bizona; see also mimicry with Micrurus. 
EtymologyThe name microphol$ is derived from the Greek mikros, meaning "small," and the Greek pholis, meaning "scale", apparently in reference to the small dorsal scales of this form.

The name gaigeae is a patronym honoring Helen T. Gaige, who collected the type.

The name andesiana is derived from the word Andes, in reference to the mountains in which the form occurs, plus the collective plural suffix -iana. 
References
  • Barbour, T., and L. J. Cole. 1906. Vertebrata from Yucatan. Reptilia, Amphibia and Pisces. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 50: 146-159 - get paper here
  • Barbour, Thomas & Loveridge, Arthur 1946. First supplement to typical reptiles and amphibians. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 96 (2): 59-214. - get paper here
  • Barrio-Amorós, Cesar Luis, Michelle Quiroz, Cristian Porras-Ramírez, Rene Villanueva-Maldonado, Alejandro Estrada-García, Abel Batista 2023. Amphibians and reptiles encountered during an expedition to Panama. Reptiles & Amphibians 30 (1): e18359 - get paper here
  • Cardenas-Ortega, M S; Herrera-Lopera, J M & Ramírez-Chaves, H E 2018. Lampropeltis micropholis (Ecuadorian Milksnake, Falsa Coral Interandina) Diet. Herpetological Review 49 (3): 549 - get paper here
  • Carrera, C. et al. 2009. Guía de Campo de los Pequeños Vertebrados del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito (DMQ). Publicación Miscelánea N° 5. Serie de Publicaciones del Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias Naturales (MECN) – Fondo Ambiental del MDMQ. 1-89 pp. Imprenta Nuevo Arte. Quito-Ecuador.
  • Chambers, E Anne; David M Hillis 2019. The Multispecies Coalescent Over-Splits Species in the Case of Geographically Widespread Taxa. Systematic Biology 69 (1): 184–193 [print version dated 2020] - get paper here
  • Cisneros-Heredia DF. 2018. Non-native small terrestrial vertebrates in the Galapagos. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26563v1 - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1860. Catalogue of the Colubridae in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with notes and descriptions of new species. Part II. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 12: 241-266 - get paper here
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  • Curlis JD, Fisher EC, Muhic WK, Moy J, Garro-Cruz M, Montero-Ramírez JJ 2020. A survey of the reptiles and amphibians at the University of Georgia Costa Rica field station in San Luis de Monteverde, Costa Rica. Check List 16(6): 1433-1456 - get paper here
  • Despax, R. 1910. Mission géodésique de l’Équateur. Collections recueillies par M. le Dr Rivet. Liste des ophidiens et descriptions des espèces nouvelles. (Note préliminaire.). Bull. Mus. natl. Hist. nat. Paris 16: 368-376 - get paper here
  • Dunn, Emmett Reid 1937. Notes on tropical Lampropeltis. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (353): 1-11 - get paper here
  • Frank, N. 1994. The American Milk Snake Lampropeltis triangulum. Reptile & Amphibian Mag. (30): 20-33
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  • Ruane, Sara; Robert W. Bryson, Jr., R. Alexander Pyron, and Frank T. Burbrink 2014. Coalescent Species Delimitation in Milksnakes (genus Lampropeltis) and Impacts on Phylogenetic Comparative Analyses. Systematic Biology 63 (2): 231-250, doi:10.1093/sysbio/syt099 - get paper here
  • Slevin, J.R. 1942. Notes on a collection of reptiles from Boquete, Panama, with the description of a new species of Hydromorphus. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 23: 463-480 - get paper here
  • Smith, H.M. 1958. Handlist of the snakes of Panamá. Herpetologica 14: 222-224. - get paper here
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  • Williams K L 1994. Lampropeltis triangulum (Lacepede), milk snake. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles 594: 1-10 - get paper here
  • Williams, K. L. 1978. Systematics and natural history of the American milk snake Lampropeltis triangulum. Milwaukee Publ. Mus. Contrib. Biol. Geol. No. 2, 258 pp. - get paper here
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  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
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