Magliophis Zaher et al., 2009

Hedges, Blair, Couloux, Arnaud & Vidal, Nicolas, 2009, Molecular phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of West Indian racer snakes of the Tribe Alsophiini (Squamata, Dipsadidae, Xenodontinae), Zootaxa 2067, pp. 1-28 : 19

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.187018

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6220099

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/674E87DD-F74A-FFEF-FF36-9157CA6BBF8D

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Magliophis Zaher et al., 2009
status

 

Genus Magliophis Zaher et al., 2009

Type species. Dromicus exiguus Cope, 1862 [1863]:79.

Diagnosis. Species in this genus have 19 midbody scale rows, 137–165 ventrals, 71–102 subcaudals, no apical scale pits, eight upper labials, and nine lower labials ( Table 2). Magliophis differs from each of the other alsophiine genera in at least one of those characters.

Content. Two species (three species + subspecies) are included in the genus ( Table 1).

Distribution. Species of Magliophis are distributed throughout the Puerto Rican Bank ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ).

Remarks. Species of Magliophis ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 F) are small racers (438 mm, maximum snout-vent length, SVL) that occur sympatrically with the larger racers of the Genus Borikenophis on the Puerto Rican Bank. The two included species were previously placed in the Genus Arrhyton . The phylogenetic trees ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1. A and 4 View FIGURE 4. A ) show that Magliophis stahli is quite divergent from M. exiguus , which agrees with morphology ( Schwartz 1967) and supports its recognition as a distinct species rather than subspecies. Zaher et al. (2009) described this genus based on hemipenial characters in the species M. exiguus . Oddly, that species was omitted from their molecular phylogeny even though it was present in the data set of Vidal et al (2000), and corresponding sequences were available in GenBank.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Squamata

Family

Colubridae

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