Micrelaps vaillanti (MOCQUARD, 1888)
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Micrelaps vaillanti
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| Higher Taxa | Micrelapidae, Elapoidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Black-headed Micrelaps, Somali Two-headed Snake |
| Synonym | Elaposchema vaillanti MOCQUARD 1888: 123 Calamelaps vaillanti — BOETTGER 1893: 117 Micrelaps vaillanti — BOULENGER 1896: 249 Micrelaps boettgeri BOULENGER 1896: 13 Rhinocalamus meleagris STERNFELD 1908: 244 Micrelaps nigriceps STERNFELD 1910 Rhinocalamus meleagris — ANGEL 1925 Micrelaps boettgeri — SCORTECCI 1929: 278 Micrelaps vaillanti — DE WITTE & LAURENT 1947 Micrelaps boettgeri — DE WITTE & LAURENT 1947 Micrelaps boettgeri — LOVERIDGE 1955 Micrelaps boettgeri — LOVERIDGE 1955 Micrelaps boettgeri — LANZA 1983 Micrelaps boettgeri — LANZA 1983 Micrelaps boettgeri — LARGEN & RASMUSSEN 1993 Micrelaps boettgeri — SPAWLS et al. 2002: 436 Micrelaps boettgeri — RASMUSSEN 2002 Micrelaps vaillanti — RASMUSSEN 2002 Micrelaps vaillanti — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 586 Micrelaps vaillanti — WALLACH et al. 2014: 438 Micrelaps vaillanti — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 459 |
| Distribution | Somalia, E Ethiopia, Kenya, N Tanzania, Chad Type locality: S Somalia boettgeri: E Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda; Type locality: “Dolo” |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: MNHN-RA 1884.0696 Holotype: MSNG 29058, a 235 mm female (E. Ruspoli, 1893) [boettgeri] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Dorsum brown or greyish, each scale usually with a central or apical pale spot, two lower rows of dorsals usually entirely pale; upper surface of head and neck dark brown or black, sometimes separated by a pale collar in juveniles. First pair of infralabials in contact behind mental. Posterior pair of chin-shields usually in contact. Fifth supralabial often in contact with parietal (Rasmussen 2002). 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 1206 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Venomous! Synonymy: Micrelaps boettgeri BOULENGER 1896 is synonymous to M. vaillanti according to RASMUSSEN (2002). BOULENGER (1888: 13) noted in the Zoological Record that the genus Elaposchema is synonymous to Calamelaps. |
| Etymology | Micrelaps vaillanti was named after Leon Louis Vaillant (1834-1914), a French zoologist, herpetologist, ichthyologist, and malacologist at Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. He was on several French naval expeditions (1880-1883). M. boettgeri was named after Oskar Boettger (1844-1910), herpetologist at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main. (now a synonym) |
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