Schouteden's sun snake explained

Schouteden's sun snake (Helophis schoutedeni) is a species of snake in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The species, which is monotypic in the genus Helophis, is endemic to Central Africa.

Etymology

The specific name, schoutedeni, is in honor of Belgian zoologist Henri Schouteden.^[1]

Geographic range

H. schoutedeni is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo.^[2]

Description

The holotype of H. schoutedeni has a total length of 540mm, which includes a tail 81mm long.^[3]

Further reading

• de Witte G-F (1922). "Description d'un ophidien nouveau récolté au Congo par le Dr Schouteden ". Revue zoologique africaine 10: 318–319. (Pelophis, new genus, p. 318; Pelophis schoutedeni, new species, pp. 318–319). (in French).
• de Witte G-F, Laurent RF (1942). "Contribution à la faune herpétologique du Congo belge ". Revue de zoologie et de botanique africaines 36 (2): 101–115. (Helophis, new genus; Helophis schoutedeni, new combination). (in French).
• Nagy, Zoltán T.; Gvoždík, Václav; Meirte, Danny; Collet, Marcel; Pauwels, Olivier S.G. (2014). "New data on the morphology and distribution of the enigmatic Schouteden's sun snake, Helophis schoutedeni (de Witte, 1922) from the Congo Basin". Zootaxa 3755 (1): 96–100.

Notes and References

1. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Helophis schoutedeni, p. 237).
2. . www.reptile-database.org.
3. de Witte (1922).