| 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 | Additional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (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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