Philothamnus ornatus Bocage, 1872

Conradie, Werner, Baptista, Ninda L., Verburgt, Luke, Keates, Chad, Harvey, James, Júlio, Timóteo & Neef, Götz, 2021, Contributions to the herpetofauna of the Angolan Okavango-Cuando-Zambezi river drainages. Part 1: Serpentes (snakes), Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 292) 15 (2), pp. 244-278 : 259

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.13259227

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038A87D3-FFD3-FFB3-FF24-FAA4FAA55F1C

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Philothamnus ornatus Bocage, 1872
status

 

Philothamnus ornatus Bocage, 1872 View in CoL

Ornate Green Snake ( Fig. 15 View Fig , Map 13)

Material: PEM R 23284–5, Cuanavale River source lake, Moxico Province, -13.09330° 18.89396°, 1,357 m asl; PEM R 27376, Cuanavale River source lake, Moxico Province, -13.09052° 18.8939°, 1,357 m asl; PEM R 23441–3, INBAC: WC-4806, Cuando River Source Trap 1, Moxico Province, -13.00393° 19.12808°, 1,351 m asl; PEM R 23430–2, Cuando River Source Trap 2, Moxico Province, -13.00426° 19.12719°, 1,350 m asl; PEMR 23330, CuitoRiverSourceLake, MoxicoProvince, -12.68935° 18.36012°, 1,435 m asl. Description: Dorsal scales smooth and in 15 rows at midbody; 146–159 smooth ventrals; 97–112 paired subcaudals; 1 preocular; 2 postoculars; temporals 1+1; supralabials 8, with 3 rd –5 th entering the orbit; 10 infralabials, the first five in contact with the anterior chin shield; cloacal scale divided. Largest female: 496 + 238 mm ( PEM R 23285); largest male: 412 + 126 mm ( PEM R 23431). Habitat and natural history notes: All specimens were found near waterbodies surrounded by grassland and mature Miombo woodland. This species lacks ventral keeling and has never been observed climbing, unlike sympatric P. heterolepidotus . The stomachs of four snakes contained frogs of the genera Ptychadena and Hyperolius . Comment: Philothamnus ornatus was described by Bocage (1872) from two specimens collected at Huíla. Although subsequently recorded from Zambia and Zimbabwe ( Broadley 1971; Broadley et al. 2003) and recently from Botswana (iNaturalist 35448603), it is known in Angola from only 10 localities ( Marques et al. 2018). The species was recently documented for the first time from the Cuito River basin ( Conradie et al. 2016), and here we document it from three more localities: Cuito River source, Cuanavale River source, and Cuando River source. These collections fill the gap between the records from western Angola and the Zambian populations.

PEM

Port Elizabeth Museum

R

Departamento de Geologia, Universidad de Chile

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Squamata

Family

Colubridae

Genus

Philothamnus

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