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Common names: shield tail snakes, earth snakes.
Rhinophis is a genus of nonvenomous shield tail snakes found in Sri Lanka and South India.[2] Currently, 24 species (with no subspecies) are recognized in this genus. Of the 24 species, 18 are endemic to Sri Lanka, while six are endemic to South India.[3]
Geographic range
Found mainly in Sri Lanka and also in southern India. In Sri Lanka, this genus also occurs in low plains in the dry zone.[1]
Species
Species
[2] Taxon author
[2] Common name Geographic range
[1] Rhinophis blythii Kelaart, 1853 Blyth's earth snake
Sri Lanka in the hills of
Central (Hatton and Pundluoya),
Uva,
Sabaragamuwa (Balangoda) and
Southern Province.
Rhinophis dorsimaculatus Deraniyagala, 1941 polka-dot earth snake
[4] Sri Lanka. Known only from the
type locality in
North Western Province.
Rhinophis drummondhayi Wall, 1921 Drummond-Hay's earth snake
Sri Lanka in the hills of
Central and
Uva Provinces (Haldumulla, Nanunukula and Uva Patnas at 1,200 m elevation).
Rhinophis erangaviraji Wickramasinghe et al., 2009 Eranga Viraj's shield tail snake
Sri Lanka.
Rhinophis fergusonianus Boulenger, 1896 Cardamom Hills shield tail snake Southern
India in the
Western Ghats: the
Cardamom Hills,
Travancore.
Rhinophis goweri Aengals & Ganesh, 2013 Gower's shield tail snake the
Eastern Ghats of
Tamil Nadu in the
Bodha Malai Hills of
Namakkal district
Rhinophis gunasekarai Wickramasinghe, Vidanapathirana, Wickramasinghe, & Gower, 2020 Gunasekara’s shield tail snake
Sri Lanka (Central Province)
Rhinophis homolepis (
Hemprich, 1820) Trevelyan's earth snake
[4] Sri Lanka in the hills of Sabaragamuwa (Ratnapura, Yatiyantota and Balangoda Hills below 900 m), Central and Uva Provinces
Rhinophis karinthandani Sampaio et al., 2020
[5] Sri Lanka: Wayanad
Rhinophis lineatus Gower & Maduwage, 2011
[6] striped rhinophis
Sri Lanka Rhinophis melanogaster (
Gray, 1858) Gray's earth snake
Sri Lanka Rhinophis melanoleucus Cyriac, Narayanan, Sampaio, Umesh, & Gower, 2020
India (Kerala)
Rhinophis mendisi Gower, 2020 Mendis' shield tail snake
Sri Lanka Rhinophis oxyrynchusT (
Schneider, 1801) Schneider's earth snake
Sri Lanka in the dry zone of
Northern, Central and
Eastern Provinces Rhinophis philippinus (
Cuvier, 1829) Peters's Philippine earth snake
Sri Lanka in the hills of Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces
Rhinophis phillipsi (Nicholls, 1929) Phillips's earth snake
Sri Lanka Rhinophis porrectus Wall, 1921 Willey's earth snake
Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality in North Western Province.
Rhinophis punctatus J.P. Müller, 1832 Müller's earth snake
Sri Lanka in Central (
Kandy,
Peradeniya) and
Western Provinces (
Puttalam)
Rhinophis roshanpererai Wickramasinghe et al., 2017
[7] Roshan Perera's shield tail snake
Sri Lanka from the central hills around Badulla
Rhinophis saffragamus (Kelaart, 1853) large shield tail snake
Sri Lanka Rhinophis sanguineus Beddome, 1863 salty earth snake Southern
India in the
Western Ghats:
Mysore (
Koppa, Kalsa),
Waynad, the
Nilgiris,
Travancore and the
Tinnevelly Hills
Rhinophis travancoricus Boulenger, 1893 Travancore earth snake Southern
India:
Travancore, from sea level to an elevation of about 1,200 m in the hills. In
Trivandrum,
Peermade,
Mahendragiri,
Ernakulam and Chenganacherry.
Rhinophis tricoloratus Deraniyagala, 1975
Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality: "vicinity of the rain forest of Sinha Raja to the south west of
Ratnapura at an elevation of 1,500 feet with a rainfall of over 200 inches per annum".
Rhinophis zigzag Gower & Maduwage, 2011
[6] zigzag rhinophis
Sri Lanka T) Type species.[1]
References
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^ a b c d McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
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^ a b c "Rhinophis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
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^ Sampaio, Filipa L.; Narayanan, Surya; Cyriac, Vivek Philip; Venu, Govindappa; Gower, David J. (2020-11-18). "A new Indian species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 closely related to R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae)". Zootaxa. 4881 (1): zootaxa.4881.1.1. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4881.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 33311126.
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^ a b The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
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^ Sampaio, Filipa L.; Narayanan, Surya; Cyriac, Vivek Philip; Venu, Govindappa & Gower, David J. (2020-11-18). "A new Indian species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 closely related to R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae)". Zootaxa. 4881 (1): 1–24. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4881.1.1. PMID 33311126.
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^ a b Gower, D.J.; Mduwage, K. (2011). "Two new species of Rhinophis Hemprich (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from Sri Lanka" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2881: 51–68. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2881.1.4. S2CID 86294901.
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^ Wickramasinghe, L. J. Mendis; Vidanapathirana, Dulan Ranga; Rajeev, M. D. Gehan & Gower, David J. (2017). "A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the central hills of Sri Lanka". Zootaxa. 4263 (1): 153–164. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4263.1.7. PMID 28609885.
