Polemon (snake)
| Polemon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Polemon bocourti | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Atractaspididae |
| Subfamily: | Aparallactinae |
| Genus: | Polemon Jan, 1858 |
| Synonyms | |
| Miodon A.H.A. Duméril, 1859 | |
Polemon is a genus of rear-fanged mildly venomous snakes in the family Atractaspididae. The genus is endemic to Africa. Fifteen species are recognized as being valid.[1][2]
Miodon is a synonym. The mollusc genus of family Carditidae invalidly described by Carpenter in 1863 has been renamed Miodontiscus.
Common name
[edit]The common name of this genus is snake-eaters, for their habit of feeding mainly on smaller snakes.
Description
[edit]In the genus Polemon the maxillary is very short, with three small teeth, followed, after an interspace, by a very large, grooved fang situated anterior to the eye. The third and fourth mandibular teeth are large and fang-like. The head is small, and not distinct from neck. The eyes are minute, with round pupils. The nostrils are in a divided nasal which does not touch the rostral, the internasal forms a suture with the first upper labial. No loreal is present. The parietal is narrowly in contact with an upper labial.
The body is cylindrical, with a very short tail. Dorsal scales are smooth, without apical pits, and are arranged in 15 rows. The ventrals are rounded; the subcaudals are single (entire),[3] or double (divided).
Species
[edit]* Not including the nominate subspecies.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Polemon". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
- ^ a b c Polemon at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 5 May 2009.
- ^ Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ), Amblycephalidæ, and Viperidæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I-XXV. (Genus Polemon, p. 253).
- ^ "A Cryptic New Species of Polemon (Squamata: Lamprophiidae, Aparallactinae) from the Miombo Woodlands of Central and East Africa". Novataxa. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
Further reading
[edit]- Jan [G] (1858). "Plan d'une Iconographie descriptive des Ophidiens et description sommaire de nouvelles espèces de Serpents ". Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée, Paris, 2e Série 10: 438-449, 514-527. (Polemon, new genus, p. 520). (in French).