Psammophis phillipsi
Authors/Creators
- 1. Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE), UMR 5175, CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE, 1919 Route de Mende, F- 34293 Montpellier cedex 5, France
- 2. Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, P. O. Box 240, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
- 3. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Laboratoire de Paludologie et de Zoologie Médicale, UMR MIVEGEC, B. P. 1386, Dakar, Sénégal
- 4. African Amphibian Conservation Research Group, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa - Flora, Fauna & Man, Ecological Services Ltd, Tortola, British Virgin Islands
- 5. Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D- 53113 Bonn, Germany
- 6. Departement of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
- 7. Aix Marseille Université, IRD, AP-HM, MEPHI, Marseille, France
- 8. Museo di Storia Naturale, Università di Firenze, Sezione di Zoologia " La Specola ", Via Romana 17, I- 50125 Firenze, Italy Corresponding author: Email: jean-francois. trape @ ird. fr
- 9. Aix Marseille Université, IRD, AP-HM, MEPHI, Marseille, France & Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Laboratoire de Paludologie et de Zoologie Médicale, UMR MIVEGEC, B. P. 1386, Dakar, Sénégal
Description
PSAMMOPHIS PHILLIPSI (Hallowell, 1844)
Phillips’ Whip Snake, Psammophis de Phillips, Phillips-Sandrennnatter
Coluber Phillipsii Hallowell, 1844, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil.: 169. Type locality: Liberia. Lectotype: ANSP 5112, designated by Broadley 1977: 24.
Psammophis Phillipsii Hallowell, 1854: 100 & 1887: 69.
Psammophis irregularis Fischer, 1856: 92. Type locality: Peki, Ghana; Günther, 1858: 137. Holotype apparently lost according to Hughes & Wade 2004. Duméril, 1860: 208, Pl. xvii, fig. 9; Jan & Sordelli, 1870: livr. 34, Pl. iv, fig. 1–2; Matschie, 1893: 212.
Psammophis sibilans (not Linnaeus) Werner, 1902: 338 (Togo); Klaptocz, 1913: 286; Aylmer, 1922: 21; Barbour & Loveridge, 1930a: 773 (Liberia); Monard, 1940: 177.
Psammophis notosticta (not Peters) Matschie, 1893: 212 (Togo).
Psammophis regularis Sternfeld, 1908a: 412, 428 (Togo); 1909b: 20 (Togo); Chabanaud, 1916: 377; 1917: 12 (Benin).
Psammophis sibilans phillipsi Loveridge, 1938: 59; 1940: 41 (part); 1946: 246; Leston, 1950: 84; Villiers, 1950: 98; 1954: 1242; Angel et al., 1954: 396; Condamin, 1958: 255; 1959: 1359; Taylor & Weyer, 1958: 1217; Doucet, 1963: 307; Menzies, 1966: 175; Roux-Estève, 1969: 121; Balletto et al., 1973: 101; Villiers, 1975: 140.
Psammophis sibilans sibilans (not Linnaeus) Loveridge, 1940: 30 (part); Villiers, 1956: 158; 1966: 1765; Doucet, 1963: 306 (part).
Psammophis sibilans var. phillipsi Cansdale, 1949: 106 (Ghana).
Psammophis phillipsi Leston & Hughes, 1968: 754; Hughes & Barry, 1969: 1023; Böhme, 1978: 398 (part); Joger, 1981: 331, fig. 16; Hughes, 1983: 346, 353 (part); Roman, 1984: 23; Butler & Reid, 1990: 32 (part); Gruschwitz et al., 1991: 30 (Gambia); Cadle, 1994: 119; Brandstätter, 1995: 75 (part); Böhme, 2000: 71; Ineich, 2003: 619; Luiselli et al., 2004: 415 (part); Villiers & Condamin, 2005: 144; Trape & Mané, 2006: 150; Chippaux, 2006: 178 (part); Ullenbruch et al., 2010: 43; Hughes, 2012: 123; Trape & Baldé, 2014: 316; Trape & Mané, 2017: 120.
Psammophis cf. phillipsii Rödel et al., 1995: 7; 1999: 170.
Description. (180 specimens examined) Nostril pierced between 2 (rarely 3) nasals; preocular 1, usually widely separated from frontal; postoculars 2; temporals usually2+2 or 2+3; supralabials 8 (very rarely 7), the 4 th & 5 th entering orbit; infralabials usually 10 (rarely 9 or 11), the first 4 (very rarely 5) in contact with anterior sublinguals; dorsal scales in 17-17-13 rows; ventrals 161–183; cloacal usually entire (9% divided); subcaudals 89–115. Brandstätter (1995: Fig. 56–57) illustrated photomicrographs of a mid-dorsal scale of SMF 20067 from Ghana.
Dorsum olive brown, uniform in most specimens (Fig. 20), rarely with black-edged mid-dorsal scales forming black lines (Fig. 21), or with irregularly scattered black scales on the body anteriorly (Fig. 6). Top of head usually uniform, but reticulations may be present, including a double pale line on the frontal (Fig. 6). Each labial and sublingual is usually adorned with a dark spot. Venter yellow or white, uniform or with lateral rows of black spots or short streaks or irregular black speckling.
Size. Largest specimen (MCZ 53726 – Achimota, Ghana) 1,280 + 533 = 1,813 mm,
Remarks. Brandstätter (1995) and Hughes (1999) first restricted the name P. phillipsi to the uniform olive form with an entire cloacal shield in West Africa, where it occupies forest clearings and moist savanna. Our molecular data also support this view for the occasional West African specimens with a divided cloacal shield and black dorsal blotches (P. irregularis Fisher).
Habitat. Moist savannas and deforested rainforest areas of West Africa from coastal Gambia to Nigeria.
Distribution. Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, southern Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria.
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Scientific name authorship
- Hallowell
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Psammophiidae
- Genus
- Psammophis
- Species
- phillipsi
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Psammophis phillipsi (Hallowell, 1844) sec. Trape, Crochet, Broadley, Sourouille, Mané, Burger, Böhme, Saleh, Karan, Lanza & Mediannikov, 2019
References
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- Hughes B, Wade E (2004) Is Psammophis sibilans occidentalis Werner 1919 (Squamata: Serpentes; Colubridae) a junior synonym of P. phillipsii (Hallowell 1844)? Herpetozoa 16 (3 / 4): 127-132
- Matschie P (1893) Die Reptilien und Amphibien des Togogebietes. Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten 6: 207-215
- Werner F (1902) Uber Westafrikanische Reptilien. Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 52: 332-348
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- Monard A (1940) Resultats de la Mission scientifique du Dr Monard en Guinee Portugaise 1937 - 1938. Arquivos do Museu Bocage 11: 147-180
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