Philodryas Wagler, 1930

Arredondo, Juan Camilo, Grazziotin, Felipe G., Scrocchi, Gustavo J., Rodrigues, Miguel Trefaut, Bonatto, Sandro Luís & Zaher, Hussam, 2020, Molecular phylogeny of the tribe Philodryadini Cope, 1886 (Dipsadidae: Xenodontinae): Rediscovering the diversity of the South American Racers, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 60, pp. 1-14 : 5-6

Genus Philodryas Wagler, 1930

Type species: Coluber olfersii Lichtenstein, 1823 .

Synonyms: See Wallach et al. (2014) for a complete list of generic synonyms.

Content (16species): Philodryas aestiva (Duméril,Bibron& Duméril, 1854) , Philodryas agassizii (Jan, 1863) , Philodryas arnaldoi ( Amaral, 1932) , Philodryas boliviana Boulenger, 1896 , Philodryas baroni Berg,1895 , Philodryas chamissonis (Wiegmann, 1835) , Philodryas cordata Donnelly & Myers, 1991 , Philodryas erlandi Lönnberg, 1902 , Philodryas livida (Amaral, 1923) , Philodryas mattogrossensis Koslowsky, 1898 , Philodryas nattereri Steindachner, 1870 , Philodryas olfersii (Lichtenstein, 1823) , Philodryas patagoniensis (Girard, 1858) , Philodryas psammophidea Günther, 1872 , Philodryas trilineata (Burmeister, 1861) , and Philodryas varia (Jan, 1863) .

Diagnosis: Philodryas can be distinguished from the oth- er Philodryadini genera by the following combination of characters: Hemipenial body much longer than the lobes (more than twice the length), with the asulcate side of the hemipenial body covered with two parallel rows of enlarged body calyces on most or all its surface ( Figs.3-4 ); dentary teeth equal in size (significantly enlarged dentary teeth in Ditaxodon ); ventral scales smooth (keeled in Chlorosoma ); buccal epithelium cream or white.

Geographical distribution: Same as the tribe.

Etymology: Donnelly & Myers(1991:46) argued convincingly that the meaning of the generic name Philodryas is “friendly tree nymph,” being a feminine gender resulting from the combination of the Greek words Philos- (noun, φῐ́ΛΟς, meaning “friend or friendly”) and -Dryas (noun, Δρῠᾰ́ς, meaning “tree nymph”).

Figures

Figure 3. Hemipenes of Chlorosomaviridissimum (MUSM 2403) in Aand B,and Incaspis amaru (FHGO 4749) inC and D. Photographs in Aand C arein sulcate views, and photographs in B and D are in asulcate views.Scale bars:5 mm.

Figure 4. Hemipenis of Philodryas chamissonis (MNHN 3807) in A and B, Tropidodryas serra (MNRJ 7354) in C and D,and Xenoxybelis argenteus (BMNH 1994.7000) in E and F.Photographs in A,C,and E are in sulcate views,and photographs in B, D,and F are inasulcate views.Scale bars:5 mm.