''Scaphiophis'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
n snakes in the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Colubridae
Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from , 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest fossil species of the family date back to the Late Eocene epoch, with earlier origins suspected. C ...
. Common names include hook-nosed snakes
and shovel-nosed snakes.
Species
Two
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
are recognized as being valid.
[. www.reptile-database.org.]
*''
Scaphiophis albopunctatus'' - African shovel-nosed snake
*''
Scaphiophis raffreyi'' - Ethiopian hook-nosed snake
Etymology
The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, ''raffreyi'', is in honor of French scientific collector
Achille Raffray.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Scaphiophis raffreyi'', pp. 215-216).]
References
Further reading
*
Boulenger GA (1894). ''Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ''. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xi + 382 pp. + Plates I-XX. (Genus ''Scaphiophis'', p. 254).
*
Peters W (1870). "''Eine Mittheilung über neue Amphibien ( ... ''Scaphiophis'' ... ) des Königlich zoologischen Museums'' ". ''Monatsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin'' 1870: 641-652 + Plates I-II. (''Scaphiophis'', new genus, p. 644; ''Scaphiophis albopunctatus'', new species, pp. 645–646 + Plate II, figures 4, 4a, 4b, 4c). (in German).
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3016353
Scaphiophis
Snake genera
Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters