Platyceps Explained

Platyceps is a genus of snakes of the family Colubridae endemic to Eurasia.

Taxonomy

The genus was erected in 1860 by Edward Blyth, allying species previously described.

The genus name Platyceps was inadvertently used for a fossil species in 1877, now recognised as Platycepsion wilkinsoni.^[1]

Species

The following 30 species are recognized as being valid.

• Platyceps afarensis Schätti & Ineich, 2004 - Afar racer
• Platyceps atayevi (Tuniyev & Shammakov, 1993)
• Platyceps bholanathi (Sharma, 1976) - Sharma's racer, Nagarjunasagar racer
• Platyceps brevis (Boulenger, 1895) - short racer
• Platyceps collaris (F. Müller, 1878) - red whip snake, collared dwarf racer
• Platyceps elegantissimus (Günther, 1878) - elegant racer
• Platyceps florulentus (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827) - flowered racer, Geoffroy's racer
• Platyceps gracilis - graceful racer, slender racer
• Platyceps insulanus (Mertens, 1965) - Sarso Island racer
• Platyceps josephi Deepak, Narayanan, Mohapatra, Dutta, Melvinselvan, Khan, Mahlow & Tillack, 2021 -Joseph’s racer
• Platyceps karelini (Brandt, 1838) - spotted desert racer
• Platyceps ladacensis (Anderson, 1871) - braid snake, Jan's cliff racer
• Platyceps largeni (Schätti, 2001) - Dahlak racer
• Platyceps messanai (Schätti & Lanza, 1989) - Schätti's racer
• Platyceps najadum (Eichwald, 1831) - Dahl's whip snake, the slender whip snake
• Platyceps noeli Schätti, Tillack & Kucharzewski, 2014 - Brahui racer
• Platyceps plinii (Merrem, 1820)
• Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1865) - common cliff racer, Wadi racer, desert racer, braid snake, Jan’s cliff racer
• Platyceps rogersi - Rogers's racer
• Platyceps saharicus Schätti & McCarthy, 2004
• Platyceps schmidtleri (Schätti & McCarthy, 2001)
• Platyceps scortecci (Lanza, 1963)
• Platyceps sinai (Schmidt & Marx, 1956) - Sinai racer, Sinai banded racer
• Platyceps sindhensis Schätti, Tillack & Kucharzewski, 2014 - Sindh racer
• Platyceps somalicus (Boulenger, 1896) - Ogaden racer, Audo racer
• Platyceps taylori (Parker, 1949) - Taylor's racer
• Platyceps thomasi (Parker, 1931) - Thomas's semi-banded racer
• Platyceps variabilis (Boulenger, 1905) - variable snake, variable racer
• Platyceps ventromaculatus (Gray, 1834) - Hardwicke's rat snake, glossy-bellied racer, Gray's rat snake, spotted bellied snake
• Platyceps vittacaudatus (Blyth, 1854) - striped-tailed racer

Nota bene

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

Further reading

• Blyth E (1860). "Report of Curator, Zoological Department". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 29 (1): 87–115. (Platyceps, new genus, p. 114).

Notes and References

1. Warren . Anne . species:A. Anne Warren . Marsicano . Claudia . Banksiops, a replacement name for Banksia townrowi (Amphibia, Temnospondyli) . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 17 April 2000 . 20 . 1 . 186 . 10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0186:BARNFB]2.0.CO;2.