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Rhinophis saffragamus (KELAART, 1853)

IUCN Red List - Rhinophis saffragamus - Vulnerable, VU
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Higher TaxaUropeltidae, Henophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Large Shieldtail Snake 
SynonymUropeltis philippinus CUVIER 1829 (nomen nudum)
Uropeltis philippina — WAGLER 1830 (nomen nudum)
Uropeltis philippinus MÜLLER 1832: 252
Uropeltis philippinus — COCTEAU 1833
Uropeltis philippinus — EYDOUX & GERVAIS 1837: 2
Pseudo-typhlops philippinus SCHLEGEL 1839: 44
Uropeltis grandis KELAART 1853: 27
Uropeltis pardalis KELAART 1853: 27
Uropeltis saffragamus [sic] — KELAART 1853: 27
Uropeltis philippinus — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 161
Uropeltis grandis — GRAY 1858: 378
Uropeltis pardalis — GRAY 1858: 378
Uropeltis ? philippinus — GRAY 1858: 378
Uropeltis philippinus — JAN 1865
Uropeltis grandis — BEDDOME 1886: 9
Uropeltis grandis — BOULENGER 1893: 139
Uropeltis grandis — WALL 1921: 26
Pseudotyphlops philippinus — SMITH 1943: 93
Pseudotyphlops philippinus — GANS 1966: 12
Pseudotyphlops philippinus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 135
Pseudotyphlops philippinus — KARUNARATHNA & AMARASINGHE 2011
Pseudotyphlops philippinus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 608
Rhinophis saffragamus — PYRON et al. 2016 (replacement name) 
DistributionSri Lanka

Type locality: "Ratnapoora, . . . District of Saffragam, near Adam‘s Peak", Sri Lanka [Uropeltis saffraganus KELAART]

Type locality: "Kerinday‘ near Matura‘ . . . Southern Province”, Sri Lanka [Uropeltis grandis KELAART]

Type locality: ,‚Matura", Sri Lanka [Uropeltis pardalis KELAART]  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 5621 (Uropeltis philippinus CUVIER)
Holotype: Lost (fide TAYLOR 1953) [Uropeltis saffraganus KELAART]
Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.8.1 (formerly 54.6.18.1) [Uropeltis grandis KELAART]
Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.16.55 (formerly 54.6.18.2) [Uropeltis pardalis KELAART] 
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 1113 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentType species: Uropeltis philippinus is the type species of the genus Pseudotyphlops Schlegel, 1839.

Genome: Ruchira et al. 2025. 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality. 
References
  • Beddome, R.H. 1886. An account of the earth snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 17: 3-33. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. London (Taylor & Francis), 448 pp. - get paper here
  • Cocteau, TH. 1833. Sur le genre de reptiles ophidiens nommé Uropeltis par CUVIER, et description d'une espèce de ce genre. Magazine Zool. Guérin, Paris, Vol. 3 Classe III, pp. 1-7, pl. 2 (no page numbers) - get paper here
  • Cuvier, G. J. L. N. F. D. 1829. Le Regne Animal Distribué, d'apres son Organisation, pur servir de base à l'Histoire naturelle des Animaux et d'introduction à l'Anatomie Comparé. Nouvelle Edition [second edition]. Vol. 2. Les Reptiles. Déterville, Paris, i-xvi, 1-406 - get paper here
  • Dunaev E.A., Orlova V.F. 2003. Diversity of snakes (on the materials of the exposition of the Zoological Museum of the Moscow State University). Moscow: Moscow State University Press, 376 pp
  • Eydoux, F. & P. Gervais 1837. Voyage de la Favourite. Reptiles. Dragon spiloptère, Draco spilopterus. Magasin Zool. Guérin, Paris, III: 1 - 10 - get paper here
  • Gans, C. 1966. Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien. Uropeltidae. Das Tierreich Lfg. 84, 29 pp.
  • Gray,J.E. 1858. On a new genus and several new species of Uropeltidae in the collection of the British Museum. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 2: 376-381 - get paper here
  • Jan, G. 1865. Iconographie générale des ophidiens. 9. Livraison. J.B. Bailière et Fils, Paris [1864] - get paper here
  • Karunarathna, Suranjan D. M. S. and A. A. Thasun Amarasinghe 2011. A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE REPTILE FAUNA IN NILGALA FOREST AND ITS VICINITY, MONARAGALA DISTRICT, SRI LANKA. Taprobanica 3 (2): 69-76 - get paper here
  • Kelaart, EDWARD FRED 1853. Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae: Descriptions of new or little known reptiles. Colombo, 2 (1): 11-22, [1854] - get paper here
  • Kelaart, EDWARD FRED 1853. Description of new or little-known species of reptiles collected in Ceylon. J. Ceylon Branch Roy. Asiatic Soc., Colombo, 22 (6): 102-116
  • Kelaart, EDWARD FRED 1853. Description of new or little-known species of reptiles collected in Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) 13 (3): 25-31, [1854] (a modified version of this paper was reproduced in Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae, Appendix) - get paper here
  • Kelaart, EDWARD FRED 1854. Catalogue of reptiles collected in Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) 13: 137-140 - get paper here
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Müller, JOHANN 1832. Beiträge zur Anatomie und Naturgeschichte der Amphibien. . . . 7. Über die Schlangen mit einem Hornschild am Körperende, gen. Rhinophis und Uropeltis. In TIEDEMANN & TREVIARNUS. Z. Physiol., Heidelberg, Leipzig, art. 19, 4 (2):190-275. - get paper here
  • Pyron R. A., Ganesh S. R., Sayyed A., Sharma V., Wallach V. & Somaweera R. 2016. A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae). [type catalogue] Zoosystema 38 (4): 453-506 - get paper here
  • Pyron, A.R. and Somaweera, R. 2019. Further notes on the Sri Lankan uropeltid snakes Rhinophis saffragamus (Kelaart, 1853) and Uropeltis ruhunae Deraniyagala, 1954. Zootaxa 4560 (3):592-600 - get paper here
  • Schlegel, H. 1839. Abbildungen neuer oder unvollständig bekannter Amphibien, nach der Natur oder dem Leben entworfen und mit einem erläuternden Texte begleitet. Arne and Co., Düsseldorf, xiv + 141 pp. - get paper here
  • Seung Hoon, Cha 2012. Snake, the world most beautifull curve [in Korean]. Hownext, 304 pp. [ISBN 978-89-965656-7-3] - get paper here
  • Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.
  • Somaweera, R., Pirro, S., & Pyron, R. A. 2025. The Complete Genome Sequences of 26 Species of Sri Lankan Snakes. Biodiversity Genomes - get paper here
  • Taylor, Edward H. 1953. Report on a collection of Ceylonese serpents. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 35 (14): 1615-1624 - get paper here
  • Wagler, Jean G. 1830. Natürliches System der Amphibien, mit vorangehender Classification der Säugetiere und Vögel. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Zoologie. 1.0. Cotta, München, Stuttgart, and Tübingen, 354 pp. [1830-1832] - get paper here
  • Wall, FRANK 1921. Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon. Colombo Mus. (H. R. Cottle, govt. printer), Colombo. xxii, 581 pages - 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.
  • Williams, Ernest E. 1959. The occipito-vertebral joint in the burrowing snakes of the family Uropeltidae. Breviora (106): 1-10 - get paper here
 
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