Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820

Pyron, Robert Alexander, Ganesh, Sumaithangi Rajagopalan, Sayyed, Amit, Sharma, Vivek, Wallach, Van & Somaweera, Ruchira, 2016, A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae), Zoosystema 38 (4), pp. 453-506 : 479

Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820

Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820: 119 .

Pseudotyphlops Schlegel, 1839 in Schlegel, 1837 -1844: 30. Type species: Uropeltis philippinus Müller, 1832 by subsequent designation of Smith (1943); here renamed as Rhinophis saffragamus ( Kelaart, 1853) n. comb.

Dapatnaya Kelaart, 1853: 104 . Type species: Dapatnaya lankadivana Kelaart, 1853 , a subjective junior synonym of Anguis oxyrhynchus Schneider, 1801 as designated by Smith (1943).

Morina Gray, 1858a: 260 . Nomen preoccupatum; possibly a lapsus for Mitylia according to Smith (1943). See Gray (1858a).

Mytilia Gray, 1858a: 261 . Unjustifiable emendation of Mitylia Gray, 1858 . Type species: Mitylia gerrardi Gray, 1858 by original monotypy; a subjective junior synonym of Rhinophis homolepis Hemprich, 1820 as designated by Peters (1861b). See Gray (1858a) for original description of Mytilia , and Gray (1858b) for Mitylia .

Crealia Gray, 1858b: 264. Type species: Mytilia (Crealia) melanogaster Gray, 1858 by original monotypy; here designated as Rhinophis melanogaster (Gray, 1858) . See Gray (1858a).

TYPE SPECIES. — Anguis oxyrhynchus Schneider, 1801 by original designation.

INCLUDED SPECIES. — Rhinophis blythii , R. dorsimaculatus , R. drummondhayi , R. erangaviraji Wickramasinghe, Vidanapathirana, Wickramasinghe & Ranwella, 2009 , R. fergusonianus Boulenger, 1896 , R. goweri Aengals & Ganesh, 2013 , R. homolepis , R. lineatus , R. melanogaster , R. oxyrhynchus ( Schneider, 1801) , R. philippinus , R. phillipsi n. comb., R. porrectus Wall, 1921 , R. punctatus Müller, 1832 , R. saffragamus n. comb., R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 , R. travancoricus Boulenger, 1893 , R. tricoloratus Deraniyagala, 1975 , and R. zigzag Gower & Maduwage, 2011 .

DISTRIBUTION. — Southern India, in the Western and Eastern Ghats of eastern Kerala, western Karnataka, and southwestern Tamil Nadu states, and Sri Lanka throughout most of the island including the dry zones (see Smith 1943; McDiarmid et al. 1999; Somaweera 2006; Wallach et al. 2014; Ganesh 2015).

DIAGNOSIS. — Rhinophis can be distinguished from all other amniotes by the characters given for the family, and from other uropeltids by united oculars, nasals separated by rostral or barely in contact, no temporal, no mental groove, dorsal scales in 15-19 rows at midbody, Oberhäutchen dentitions that are <1.7 mm and <50% of the total cell size for all species examined thusfar ( R. saffragamus , R. sanguineus , R. travancoricus , R. drummondhayi , R. blythii , R. philippinus , R. oxyrhynchus , and R. homolepis ; Gower 2003), and shortened, dorsally compressed tail that exhibits a distinct, rugose, keratinous disc at the end, clearly separated from the surrounding ventral and dorsal scales, for which the degree of enlargement and rugosity varies among species and ontogenetically, and more anterior junction of systemic arches (mean of –3.37% SVL) compared to other uropeltid genera (mean of –1.52%).

DESCRIPTION

No other examined characteristics of visceral anatomy differ significantly between Rhinophis and other uropeltid genera. However, a number of these characteristics differ qualitatively from the other taxa and should be examined in more specimens to determine if they are indeed diagnostic of the genus. They are: smaller anterior lobe of the right lung (mean of 1.3% SVL) compared to the other genera (2.47%), smaller avascular portion of the right lung (3.50% vs 7.50%), smaller kidney-vent interval indicating more posterior kidneys (18% vs 21%), larger heart (4.72% vs 4.17%), more posterior right kidney (86% vs 83%), more posterior left kidney (89% vs 87%), more posterior gallbladder (70% vs 67%), and lower number of tracheal rings (mean of 172 vs 212). In the two species for which it has been observed ( R. dorsimaculatus and R. lineatus ), the hemipenis is relatively long (c. 50% of tail length), simple, slender, subcylindrical, tapering slightly, covered to varying degrees in recurved spines ( Gower & Maduwage 2011; Gower & Wickramasinghe 2016).

REMARKS

Originally described as a subgenus of the lizard taxon Anguis Linnaeus, 1758 . These species have the most heavily modified tail shields of uropeltids, though the degree of hypertrophy appears to vary substantially across species and ontogenetic stages. Fitzinger (1843) recognized a subgroup Rhinophes, which is thus a valid name in the family group with the type genus Rhinophis .