Anilius
Genus of snakes
title: "Anilius" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["aniliidae", "reptiles-of-guyana", "reptiles-of-trinidad-and-tobago", "monotypic-snake-genera", "taxa-named-by-leonhard-stejneger", "reptiles-described-in-1758", "animal-taxa-named-by-carl-linnaeus"] description: "Genus of snakes" topic_path: "general/aniliidae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anilius" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Genus of snakes ::
| image = Anilius scytale.jpg | grandparent_authority = Stejneger, 1907 | genus = Anilius | parent_authority = Oken, 1816 | species = scytale | authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) | range_map = Anilius scytale Map.jpg | display_parents = 4 | synonyms =
- Ilysioidea - Fitzinger, 1826
- Tortricina - Müller, 1823
- Tortricidae - Jan, 1863
- Ilysiidae - Boulenger, 1890
- Aniliidae - Stejneger, 1907
- Anilidae - Amaral, 1930
- Aniliinae - Romer, 1956
- Tortrix - Oppel, 1811
- Anilius - Oken, 1816
- Elysia - Hemprich, 1820
- Helison - Brazil,
- Ilysia - Lichtenstein, 1823
- Torquatrix - Haworth, 1825
- Illisia - Schinz, 1883
- Anileus - Agassiz, 1844
- [Anguis] Scytale Linnaeus, 1758
- Anguis annulata Laurenti, 1768
- Anguis fasciata Laurenti, 1768
- Anguis caerulae Laurenti, 1768
- Anguis corallina Laurenti, 1768
- Anguis atra Laurenti, 1768
- [Anguis] ater — Gmelin, 1788
- Anguis Corallinus — Schneider, 1801
- Anguis fasciatus — Schneider, 1801
- Anguis ruber Latreille In Sonnini & Latreille, 1801
- Tortr[ix]. scytale — Oppel, 1811
- Tortr[ix]. coralinus [sic] Oppel, 1811 (ex errore)
- Anilius scytale — Oken, 1816
- [Tortrix] annulata — Merrem, 1820
- Anguis (Elysia) Scytale — Hemprich, 1820
- Ilysia scytale — Lichtenstein, 1823
- Torquatrix scytale — Gray, 1825
- Tortrix scytale — A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844
- Ilysia scytale — Boulenger, 1893
- A[nilius]. scytale [scylate] [sic] Roze, 1958 (ex errore)
- Anilius scytale scytale — J. Peters & Orejas-Miranda, 1970
The Aniliidae are a monotypic family created for the monotypic genus Anilius that contains the single species Anilius scytale. Common names include the American pipe snake and false coral snake. It is found in South America. This snake possesses a vestigial pelvic girdle that is visible as a pair of cloacal spurs. It is ovoviviparous. It is non-venomous, and its diet consists mainly of amphibians and other reptiles. Two subspecies are recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.
Description
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Illustration_of_a_Caiman_crocodilus_and_an_Anilius_scytale_(1701–1705)_by_Maria_Sibylla_Merian.jpg" caption="[[Spectacled caiman]] and false coral snake by [[Maria Sibylla Merian"] ::
This species is found in the Amazon rainforest of South America, the Guianas, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is a moderate-sized snake attaining a size of about 70 cm in length. It is fossorial and is rarely seen. It is reported to be ovoviviparous and feeds on beetles, caecilians (burrowing legless amphibians), amphisbaenids or worm lizards (legless lizards), small fossorial snakes, fish (particularly swamp eels), and frogs. It forages for food on the ground, and sometimes in the water, at night. It has a cylindrical body of uniform diameter and a very short tail; it is brightly banded in red and black and its reduced eyes lie beneath large head scales. It is considered to be the snake that most resembles the original and ancestral snake condition, such as a lizard-like skull.
Geographic range
It is found in the tropics of northern South America from southern and eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana south through the Amazon Basin of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. The type locality given is "Indiis".
Subspecies
::data[format=table]
| Subspecies | Taxon author | Common name | Geographic range |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. s. phelpsorum | Roze, 1958 | ||
| A. s. scytale | (Linnaeus, 1758) | ||
| :: |
Taxonomy
Modern classifications restrict the family to the South American pipe snake or false coral snake (Anilius scytale), with the previously included Asian genus Cylindrophis raised to a separate family, Cylindrophiidae. Anilius is not closely related to Asian pipesnakes. Instead, its closest relatives appear to be the neotropical Tropidophiidae.
References
References
- [[:fr:Roy Wallace McDiarmid. McDiarmid RW]], [[Jonathan A. Campbell. Campbell JA]], Touré T. 1999. ''Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1''. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. {{ISBN. 1-893777-00-6 (series). {{ISBN. 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
- {{ITIS
- {{ITIS
- {{ITIS
- Lainson, Ralph. (April 2005). "The Genus Cyclospora (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae), with a description of Cyclospora schneideri n.sp. in the snake Anilius scytale scytale (Aniliidae) from Amazonian Brazil: a review". Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
- (2024). "Reptiles of Ecuador: Life in the middle of the world".
- (April 2010). "Food habits of Anilius scytale (Serpentes: Aniliidae) in the Brazilian Amazonia". Zoologia (Curitiba).
- [http://www.animalaqua.com/evolution-snake/ Evolution – snake]
- (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes". BMC Evolutionary Biology.
- (2014). "Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
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