''Levitonius'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of cyclocorid snakes endemic to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The only species in the genus is the Waray dwarf burrowing snake (''Levitonius mirus''). It is native to the

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

and

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has be ...

islands in the

, where it lives among 112 other land and snake species. ''Levitonus'' is smaller than the other

Cyclocoridae Cyclocoridae is a family of elapoid snakes endemic to the Philippines. Taxonomy It was initially erected as a subfamily (Cyclocorinae) in 2017 to house four enigmatic, endemic genera containing seven species and one then-undescribed lineage t ...

, reaching only a length of . In addition, it has the smallest number of

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

of any snake, which is possibly related to its size. Its primary diet is earthworms. Specimens of this genus had been collected in 2006 and 2007, and later again in 2014, but were misidentified. In 2018 a specimen of the genus was described as "Unnamed Leyte-Samar lineage". It is thought to be the most

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

member of the family Cyclocoridae. The genus is named after herpetologist Alan E. Leviton.

References

Cyclocoridae Endemic fauna of the Philippines Reptiles of the Philippines Monotypic snake genera {{Colubrids-stub