Philothamnus pobeguini (CHABANAUD, 1916)
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Philothamnus pobeguini?
Philothamnus pobeguini
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Chlorophis heterodermus Pobeguini CHABANAUD 1916: 371 Chlorophis heterodermus pobeguini — MONARD 1940: 174 Philothamnus heterodermus heterodermus LOVERIDGE 1958 (non HALLOWELL 1857) (in part) Philothamnus pobeguini — WALLACH et al. 2014: 558 Philothamnus pobeguini — TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014 |
| Distribution | Guinea (Conakry) Type locality: “Guinée française” [= Guinea]. |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: MNHN-RA 1916.0206, female |
| Diagnosis | This species is characterised by the unique combination of an entire anal scale, two supralabials entering the orbit (compared to three supralabials entering the orbit for all our 44 P. heterodermus, 12 P. carinatus and 20 P. belli specimens), and a single anterior temporal (two anterior temporals for all our 44 P. heterodermus, 12 P. carinatus and 20 P. belli specimens). It was treated as a junior synonym of Philothamnus heterodermus by Loveridge (1936, 1958) although this author recognized that Chabanaud’s (1916) type specimen from Guinea may represent a separate species. Other authors never discussed the status of P. pobeguini, and Hughes (1995) recognized only two species with an entire anal in West Africa: P. carinatus and P. heterodermus. As also mentioned by Chabanaud (1916), this species has a distinct pale colour pattern on the snout and gular region: pale rose-pink in life, whitish in preservative. The rest of the head and the body are green in life, but blue in preservative. Original description: “CHLOROPHIS HETERODERMUS [Hallow.] Pobeguini, subsp. nov. – Diffère de la forma typica par les caractères suivants : deux labiales supérieures bordant l’œil; temporales 2 + 1. Portion de la rostrale visible en dessus un peu plus longue que chez la forme typique; 9 labiales supérieures à droite, 5e et 6e bordant l’œil; 8 à gauche, 4e et 5e bordant l’œil. La subdivision de la 1re temporale parait accidentelle, car elle n’est complète que du seul côté gauche; à droite, la temporale supérieure de la 1re série est réduite à une petite plaque triangulaire occupant l’angle antéro-supérieur de la grande temporale inférieure, qui se trouve ainsi postérieurement en contact avec la pariétale. Il se pourrait donc que l’on rencontre des exemplaires de cette variété dont la formule des temporales serait 1 + 1. Coloration entièrement d’un bleu ardoise uniforme, un peu plus clair en dessous, avec le museau et la région gulaire d’un blanc rosé. Ventrales 151; anale entière; sous caudales 77/77 + 1. Longueur totale : 780 mm, dont 180 mm pour la queue. Guinée française, 1 male [Pobeguin]” (Chabanaud 1916, cited in TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014) |
| Comment | Illustration: A colour photograph of a specimen of P. pobeguini from near Kofing River in Upper Niger National Park appears in Greenbaum & Carr (2005) as P. heterodermus. Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
| Etymology | Apparently named after the collector of the type who is only mentioned by one word after the type as “[Pobéguin]”. Charles Henri Oliver Pobéguin (1856-1951) was a French colonial administrator and naturalist in Central and West Africa. |
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