Lamprophiidae Fitzinger, 1843

Leviton, Alan E., Siler, Cameron D., Weinell, Jeffrey L. & Brown, Rafe M., 2018, Synopsis of the Snakes of the Philippines, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 64 (14), pp. 399-568 : 449

Family Lamprophiidae Fitzinger, 1843

REMARKS.— The placement of the genera Oxyrhabdium and Psammodynastes in the family Lamprophiidae has been and is the subject of considerable controversy (see Lawson et al. [2005]; Vidal et al. [2007]; Pyron et al. [2011, 2013]; Figueroa et al. [2016]). Indeed, as Pyron et al. (2011:341) observed, “We follow Vidal et al. (2007) in tentatively recognizing Lamprophiidae as a single family, including Aparallactinae, Atractaspidinae, Lamprophiinae, Psammophiinae, and Pseudoxyrophiinae.... [however] The genera Buhoma , Oxyrhabdium , and Psammodynastes cannot be placed confidently within the existing subfamilies of Lamprophiidae .” But even more recently, Weinell and Brown (2017) provid- ed reasonably conclusive evidence for the placement of Oxyrhabdium along with Cyclocorus and Hologerrhum within the Lamprophiidae clade but as a distinct subfamily group. We do note that whereas Myersophis with Oxyrhabdium may be congeneric, in this account we treat them as distinct genera, pending further study. Lastly, we have not fully resolved the placement of Psammodynastes , which we believe is reasonably associated with the Lamprophiidae , but how it relates to recognized subfamilies with the family is still under investigation.