Lycodonomorphus Explained

Lycodonomorphus is a genus of snakes commonly referred to as African water snakes. They are small, nonvenomous snakes, with all members being endemic to Africa, especially Tanzania.^[1]

Species

The following nine species are recognized as being valid.^[2]

• Lycodonomorphus bicolor — Tanganyika white-bellied water snake
• Lycodonomorphus inornatus ^[3] — Olive house snake, Olive ground snake
• Lycodonomorphus laevissimus — Dusky-bellied water snake
• Lycodonomorphus leleupi — Congo dark-bellied water snake, Mulanje water snake
• Lycodonomorphus mlanjensis — Mlanje white-bellied water snake
• Lycodonomorphus obscuriventris — Floodplain water snake
• Lycodonomorphus rufulus — Common brown water snake
• Lycodonomorphus subtaeniatus — Eastern Congo white-bellied water snake, Lined water snake
• Lycodonomorphus whytii ^[4] — Whyte's water snake

Nota bene

A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Lycodonomorphus.

Etymology

The specific name, whytii, is in honor of British naturalist Alexander Whyte (1834–1908), who worked in Nyasaland (now Malawi) from 1891 to 1897.^[5]

Further reading

• Auerbach RD (1987). The Amphibians and Reptiles of Botswana. Botswana: Mokwepa Consultants. 295 pp.
• Boulenger GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I. London: Trustees of the British Museum. (Taylor and Francis, printers). 448 pp.
• Boycott RC (1992). An Annotated Checklist of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Swaziland. The Conservation Trust of Swaziland, 1992; online at https://web.archive.org/web/20120914175238/http://www.sntc.org.sz/checklst/sdreptam.html.
• Broadley DG (1967). "A review of the genus Lycodonomorphus Fitzinger (Serpentes: Colubridae) in southeastern Africa, with a key to the genus". Arnoldia 3 (16): 1–9.
• Broadley DG, Cotterill FPD (2004). "The reptiles of southeast Katanga, an overlooked 'hot spot' ". African Journal of Herpetology 53 (1): 35–61.
• Fitzinger L (1843). Systema Reptilium, fasciculus primus, Amblyglossae. Vienna: Braumüller et Seidel. 106 pp. (in Latin).
• Fitzinger L (1826). Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften nebst einer Verwandschafts-Tafel und einem Verzeichnisse der Reptilien-Sammlung des K. K. Zoologischen Museums zu Wien. Vienna: J. G. Heubner. 66 pp. (in German and Latin).
• Haagner GV (1992). "Life History Notes - Lycodonomorphus rufulus ". Journal of the Herpetological Association of Africa (41): 42.
• Lichtenstein MHC (1823). Verzeichniss der Doubletten des zoologischen Museums der Königl. Universität zu Berlin nebst Beschreibung vieler bisher unbekannter Arten von Säugethieren, Vögeln, Amphibien und Fischen. Berlin: Königl. Preuss. Akad. Wiss./ T. Trautwein. x + 118 pp. (in German).
• Marais J (2004). A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa, Second Edition. Struik Publishers. 312 pp.
• Raw LRG (1973). "A review of the dusky-bellied water snake, Lycodonomorphus laevissimus (Günther), with descriptions of two new subspecies". Annals of the Natal Museum 21 (3): 713–718. (Lycodonomorphus laevissimus fitzsimonsi nov. subsp., Lycodonomorphus laevissimus laevissimus nov. subsp., Lycodonomorphus laevissimus natalensis nov. subsp.)

External links

• Scale counts of Lycodonomorphus members.
• "Lycodonomorphus ". NCBI Taxonomy Browser. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Undef&id=382769&lvl=3&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock

Notes and References

1. http://data.gbif.org/species/13214046 GBIF.org
2. "Lycodonomorphus ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
3. [Christopher M.R. Kelly|Kelly CMR]
4. http://jcvi.org/reptiles/search.php?submit=Search&exact%5B%5D=genus&genus=Lycodonomorphus JCVI.org
5. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Lycodonomorphus whytii, p. 285).