''Myersophis'' 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 ...

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

in the family Cyclocoridae. It contains only one species, ''Myersophis alpestris'' or Myers's mountain snake, which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It is only known from two specimens collected near

Banaue Banaue (or alternatively spelled as Banawe) , officially the Municipality of Banaue ( Ilocano: ''Ili ti Banaue'', Tagalog: ''Bayan ng Banaue''), is a municipality in the province of Ifugao, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has ...

from

Mountain Province Mountain Province (; ; ; ; ; ) is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc while Bauko is the largest municipality. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as Mountain ...

in northern

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

. Both were collected at above sea level. Nothing else is known about this species, such as its habitat, and the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

has since been lost. A 2017 phylogenetic study found ''Myersophis'' to be the sister group to the genus '' Oxyrhabdium'' (both genera having diverged during the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

), and assigned both, alongside some other Philippine endemic snake genera, to the new subfamily Cyclocorinae. Later studies uplifted Cyclocorinae to being its own family, Cyclocoridae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3331352 Cyclocoridae Monotypic snake genera Reptiles of the Philippines Endemic fauna of the Philippines Fauna of Luzon Taxa named by Edward Harrison Taylor