Polemon is a genus of rear-fanged mildly venomous snakes in the family Atractaspididae. The genus is endemic to Africa. Fifteen species are recognized as being valid.
Miodon is a synonym. The mollusc genus of family Carditidae invalidly described by Carpenter in 1863 has been renamed Miodontiscus.
The common name of this genus is snake-eaters, for their habit of feeding mainly on smaller snakes.
In the genus Polemon the maxillary is very short, with three small teeth, followed, after an interspace, by a very large, grooved fang situated anterior to the eye. The third and fourth mandibular teeth are large and fang-like. The head is small, and not distinct from neck. The eyes are minute, with round pupils. The nostrils are in a divided nasal which does not touch the rostral, the internasal forms a suture with the first upper labial. No loreal is present. The parietal is narrowly in contact with an upper labial.
The body is cylindrical, with a very short tail. Dorsal scales are smooth, without apical pits, and are arranged in 15 rows. The ventrals are rounded; the subcaudals are single (entire),[1] or double (divided).
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| Genus Polemon -- 13 species | ||||
| Species | Taxon author | Subspecies* | Common name | Geographic range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P. acanthias[2] | (J.T. Reinhardt, 1860) | ———— | Reinhardt's snake-eater | Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone. |
| P. ater | Portillo, Branch, Tilbury, Nagy, Hughes, Kusamba, Muninga, Aristote, Behangana & Greenbaum, 2019 | ———— | black snake-eater | Central Africa, East Africa. |
| P. barthii | Jan, 1858 | ———— | Guinea snake-eater | Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon. |
| P. bocourti | Mocquard, 1897 | ———— | Bocourt's snake-eater | Cameroon, Río Muni, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire). |
| P. christyi | (Boulenger, 1903) | ———— | eastern snake-eater | Dem. Rep. Congo, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia. |
| P. collaris | (W. Peters, 1881) | brevior longior | collared snake-eater | Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Nigeria, Central African Republic. |
| P. fulvicollis | (Mocquard, 1887) | gracilis graueri laurenti | African snake-eater | Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo, Uganda. |
| P. gabonensis | (A.H.A. Duméril, 1856) | schmidti | Gaboon snake-eater | Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Central African Republic. |
| P. gracilis | (Boulenger, 1911) | ———— | graceful snake-eater | South Cameroon. |
| P. graueri | (Sternfeld, 1908) | ———— | Grauer's snake-eater | Uganda, eastern Zaire. |
| P. griseiceps | (Laurent, 1947) | ———— | Cameroon snake-eater | Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo. |
| P. leopoldi | (de Witte, 1941) | ———— | Rwanda. | |
| P. neuwiedi | (Jan, 1858) | ———— | Ivory Coast snake-eater | Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria. |
| P. notatus | (W. Peters, 1882) | aemulans | Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon. | |
| P. robustus | (de Witte & Laurent, 1943) | ———— | Zaire snake-eater | Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Central African Republic. |