| Higher Taxa | Lamprophiidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Angola File Snake
G: Angola-Feilenschlange |
| Synonym | Mehelya vernayi BOGERT 1940
Mehelya vernayi — HAACKE 1981: 221
Mehelya vernayi — BAUER et al. 1993
Gonionotophis vernayi — KELLY et al. 2011
Mehelya vernayi — WALLACH et al. 2014: 425
Limaformosa vernayi — BROADLEY et al. 2018
Gonionotophis vernayi — CHIPPAUX & JACKSON 2019: 218 |
| Distribution | N Namibia, SW Angola
Type locality: "Hanha, Angola." [=Hanha do Norte, Benguela Distrito, Angola, 12˚16'S, 13˚42'E, 35 m].
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| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: AMNH 51795, a 1035 mm female (A.S. Vernay, H. Lang and R. Boulton, 13-19 May 1925). |
| Diagnosis | 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 1054 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Haacke 1981 estimated that there are less than a dozen specimens in collections. |
| Etymology | Named after Arthur Stannard Vernay (1877-1960), an English antiques dealer and philanthropist with a deep interest in natural history who lived in the USA. He was a Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History. |
| References |
- Bauer, Aaron M.; Branch, William R. & Haacke, Wulf D. 1993. The herpetofauna of the Kamanjab area and adjacent Damaraland, Namibia. Madoqua (Windhoek) 18 (2): 117-145. - get paper here
- Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
- Bogert,C.M. 1940. Herpetological results of the Vernay Angola Expedition. I. Snakes, including an arrangement of the African Colubridae. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 77: 1-107 - get paper here
- Broadley, Donald G.; Krystal A. Tolley, Werner Conradie, Sarah Wishart, Jean-François Trape, Marius Burger, Chifundera Kusamba, Ange-Ghislain Zassi-Boulou & Eli Greenbaum 2018. A phylogeny and genus-level revision of the African file snakes Gonionotophis Boulenger (Squamata: Lamprophiidae). African Journal of Herpetology, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2018.1423578 - 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
- Haacke, W.D. 1981. The file snakes of the genus Mehelya in Southern Africa with special reference to South West Africa/Namibia. Madoqua 12 (4): 217-224 - get paper here
- Herrmann, H.-W.; W.R. Branch 2013. Fifty years of herpetological research in the Namib Desert and Namibia with an updated and annotated species checklist. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 94–115 - get paper here
- 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
- 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)
- Schleicher, Alfred 2020. Reptiles of Namibia. Kuiseb Publishers, Windhoek, Namibia, 271 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.
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