Gonionotophis Boulenger, 1893

Marques, Mariana P., Ceríaco, Luis M. P., Blackburn, David C. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2018, Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840 - 2017), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 65, pp. 1-501 : 332

Genus Gonionotophis Boulenger, 1893

Gonionotophis brussauxi ( Mocquard, 1889) MOCQUARD’S FILE SNAKE

Godionotus brussauxi Mocquard 1889:146 . Holotype: MNHN 1890.54 (collector E. Brussaux). Type locality: “Loudinia-Niara, sur le fleuve Niai, entre Loango sur le litoral, et Brazzaville sur le fleuve Congo ” [= between Ludinia on the Niara River ], Congo.

Gonionotophis brussauxi : Laurent (1954a:44), Chippaux (2006:91), Chirio and LeBreton (2007:428), Vidal et al. (2008:57), Kelly et al. (2011:425), Wallach et al. (2014:308), Lanza and Broadley (2014:89), Broadly et al. (2018:7).

Global conservation status (IUCN): Not Evaluated.

Global distribution: The species is known from Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and extreme northeastern Angola.

Ocurrences in Angola (Map 291): The species is known from extreme northeastern Angola. Lunda Norte: “Dundo” [-7.36667, 20.83333] ( Laurent 1954a:44) .

Taxonomic and distributional notes: The Dundo record of Laurent (1954a) probably represents the southernmost limit of the species. Loveridge (1939) remarked on the close relationship between the two file snake genera Mehelya and Gonionotophis Boulenger, 1893 , and later, Vidal et al. (2008) and Kelly et al. (2011) determined that Gonionotophis brussauxi ( Mocquard, 1889) , type species of Gonionotophis , is nested within Mehelya . In order to maintain monophyletic genera, Kelly et al. (2011) transferred all species placed in Mehelya Csiki, 1903 to Gonionotophis ,