Oxyrhopus
Genus of snakes
title: "Oxyrhopus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["oxyrhopus", "snake-genera", "taxa-named-by-johann-georg-wagler"] description: "Genus of snakes" topic_path: "general/oxyrhopus" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyrhopus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Genus of snakes ::
| name = Oxyrhopus | image = Oxyrhopus melanogenys.jpg | image_caption = Oxyrhopus melanogenys in Ecuador. | taxon = Oxyrhopus | authority = Wagler, 1830 | synonyms = Brachyruton, Clelia, Coluber, Duberria, Erythrolamprus, Lycodon, Olisthenes, Phimophis, Pseudoboa, Rhinosimus, Scytale, Siphlophis, Sphenocephalus
Oxyrhopus, the false coral snakes, is a genus of colubrid snakes that belong to the subfamily Dipsadinae. All 15 members of the genus are found in the northern part of South America, with the native range of the most widespread member, Oxyrhopus petolarius, extending into Central America and Trinidad and Tobago as well.
Species
The following 15 species are recognized as being valid.
- Oxyrhopus clathratus A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854 – Duméril's false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus doliatus A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854 – Bibron's false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus emberti Gonzales, Reichle & Entiauspe-Neto, 2020
- Oxyrhopus erdisii (Barbour, 1913)
- Oxyrhopus fitzingeri (Tschudi, 1845) – Fitzinger's false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus formosus (Wied-Neuwied, 1820) – Formosa false coral snake, beautiful calico snake
- Oxyrhopus guibei Hoge & Romano, 1977
- Oxyrhopus leucomelas (F. Werner, 1916) – Werner's false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus marcapatae (Boulenger, 1902) – Boulenger's false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus melanogenys (Tschudi, 1845) – Tschudi's false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus occipitalis (Wied-Neuwied, 1824)
- Oxyrhopus petolarius (Linnaeus, 1758) – forest flame snake
- Oxyrhopus rhombifer A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854 – Amazon false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus trigeminus A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854 – Brazilian false coral snake
- Oxyrhopus vanidicus Lynch, 2009
The former Oxyrhopus venezuelanus Shreve, 1947 is currently considered a synonym of Oxyrhopus doliatus.
Nota bene: In the above list, a binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Oxyrhopus.
Description
Species in the genus Oxyrhopus share the following characters:
Head distinct from neck. Eye moderate or small. Pupil vertically elliptic. Body cylindrical or slightly laterally compressed. Tail moderate or long.
Dorsal scales smooth, with apical pits, and arranged in 19 rows at midbody.
Maxillary teeth 10–15, subequal, followed after a gap by two enlarged grooved teeth, located just behind the posterior border of the eye.
References
References
- [[George Albert Boulenger. Boulenger GA]] (1896). ''Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ) ...'' London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I-XXV. (Genus ''Oxyrhopus'', p. 99).
- MacCulloch, Ross D.. (2009). "The genus ''Oxyrhopus'' (Serpentes: Dipsadidae: Xenodontinae) in Guyana: morphology, distributions and comments on taxonomy". Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia.
- {{ITIS
- {{EMBL genus
- [[species:John Douglas Lynch
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::