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Limaformosa crossi (BOULENGER, 1895)

IUCN Red List - Limaformosa crossi - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaLamprophiidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: African File Snake, Crosse’s File Snake 
SynonymSimocephalus crossi BOULENGER 1895: 33
Simocephalus riggenbachi STERNFELD 1908 (fide HALLERMANN 2007)
Simocephalus crossi — ANGEL 1933: 96
Mehelya crossi — ROMER 1953
Mehelya crossi — PAPENFUSS 1969: 309
Mehelya crossi — HUGHES 1983
Mehelya crossii — TRAPE & MANÉ 2002
Mehelya crossi — CHIRIO & LEBRETON 2007: 478
Gonionotophis crossi — KELLY et al. 2011
Mehelya crossi — SEGNIAGBETO et al. 2012
Mehelya crossi — HUGHES 2013
Mehelya crossi — WALLACH et al. 2014: 425
Mehelya crossi — TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014
Mehelya crossi — TRAPE & MANÉ 2017
Limaformosa crossi — BROADLEY et al. 2018
Gonionotophis crossi — CHIPPAUX & JACKSON 2019: 210
Gonionotophis crossi — SENTER & CHIPPAUX 2022
Limaformosa crossii — TRAPE 2023: 504
Mehelya crossi — SEGNIAGBETO et al. 2024 
DistributionBenin, Nigeria, Mali, Central African Republic, Cameroon (Hughes 1983), Senegal, Burkina Faso, W Niger, Togo, Guinea (Conakry), Ivory Coast, Ghana, Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Chad, Liberia

riggenbachi: Cameroon

Type locality: Asaba, Nigeria  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesType: BMNH 1946.1.14.49 (and possibly additional specimens).
Holotype: ZMB 29461Ubac, Kamerun [Simocephalus riggenbachi] 
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 1470 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy: Loveridge 1939 already speculated that “that riggenbachi may prove to be a synonym, but this is doubtful unless there was a miscount in the number of midbody scale-
rows.” 
EtymologyNamed after Dr. William Henry Crosse (1859-1903), a traveler and collector who operated in Nigeria. 
References
  • Angel,F. 1933. Les serpents de l’Afrique occidentale Francaise. Paris, Larose Editeurs, 246 pp
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Böhme, Wolfgang, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Christian Brede & Philipp Wagner 2011. The reptiles (Testudines, Squamata, Crocodylia) of the forested southeast of the Republic Guinea (Guinée forestière), with a country-wide checklist. Bonn zoological Bulletin 60 (1): 35-61 - get paper here
  • Boulenger,G.A. 1895. On some new or little-known reptiles obtained by W. H. Crosse Esq. on the Niger. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6) 16: 32-34 - get paper here
  • Broadley, Donald G. 2007. On the status of Simocephalus riggenbachi Sternfeld 1910. African Journal of Herpetology 56(2):171-173 - 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
  • 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.
  • ETO, K 2020. Limaformosa crossi (Crosse’s File Snake) and Mehelya poensis (Western Forest File Snake). Coloration/Biofluorescence. Herpetological Review 51: 622-623.
  • Hallermann, J. 2007. The status of problematic snake types of the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Reptilia, Serpentes). Mitt. Mus. Nat.kd. Berl., Zool. Reihe 83 (2): 160–165 - get paper here
  • Howell, Kim M. and Donald G. Broadley. 2014. Gonionotophis crossii (Boulenger, 1895) Crosse's File Snake. African Herp News (61): 41-42 - get paper here
  • Hughes, B. 1983. African snake faunas. Bonner Zoologische Beiträge 34: 311-356 - get paper here
  • Hughes, B. 2013. Snakes of Bénin, West Africa. Bull. Soc. Herp. France 144: 101-159
  • 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
  • Lönnberg, E. 1910. Two new snakes from Lower Congo. Arkiv för Zoologi 7 (8): 1-8 - get paper here
  • Olayinka, O. D., Lewiska, O. F., & Akeem, L. G. 2025. Snake diversity and their morphometric parameters in a Guinea Savanna forest of Nigeria. Brazilian Journal of Science, 4(9), 42-52 - get paper here
  • Papenfuss, T. J. 1969. Preliminary analysis of the reptiles of arid central West Africa. Wasmann Journal of Biology 27:249—325 - get paper here
  • Romer, J.D. 1953. Reptiles and Amphibians Collected in the Port Harcourt Area of Nigeria. Copeia 1953 (2): 121-123 - 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
  • Segniagbeto, G. H., Dekawole, J. K., Ayoro, J. H., Ketoh, G. K., Sinsin, B., Dendi, D., & Luiselli, L. 2024. SPECIES RICHNESS AND VARIATION IN THE COMMUNITY COMPOSITION OF AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES IN FOUR SITES OF THE DAHOMEY GAP IN BENIN, WEST AFRICA. European Journal of Ecology, 10, 49-62 - get paper here
  • Senter, P. J., & Chippaux, J. P. 2022. Biogeography of snakes in Liberia: Review and synthesis of current knowledge. Ghana Journal of Science, 63(1), 29-62 - get paper here
  • Sternfeld,R. 1908. Die Schlangenfauna von Kamerun. Mitt. zool. Mus. Berlin 3 (4): 397-432 - get paper here
  • Sternfeld,R. 1910. Neue Beiträge zur Schlangenfauna Kameruns. Mitt. zool. Mus. Berlin 5: 61-65 - 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. 2002. Les serpents du Sénégal: liste commentée des espèces. Bull. Soc. Pathol. Exot. 95 (3): 148-150
  • 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 & CELLOU BALDÉ 2014. A checklist of the snake fauna of Guinea, with taxonomic changes in the genera Philothamnus and Dipsadoboa (Colubridae) and a comparison with the snake fauna of some other West African countries. Zootaxa 3900 (3): 301–338 - 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
  • Ullenbruch, K.; Grell, O.; Böhme, W. 2010. Reptiles from southern Benin, West Africa, with the description of a new Hemidactylus (Gekkonidae), and a country-wide checklist. Bonn Zool. Bull. 57 (1): 31-54 - 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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