Xenoxybelis Machado, 1993

Arredondo, Juan Camilo, Grazziotin, Felipe G., Scrocchi, Gustavo J., Rodrigues, Miguel Trefaut, Bonatto, Sandro Luís & Zaher, Hussam, 2020, Molecular phylogeny of the tribe Philodryadini Cope, 1886 (Dipsadidae: Xenodontinae): Rediscovering the diversity of the South American Racers, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 60, pp. 1-14 : 8

Genus Xenoxybelis Machado, 1993 resurrected

Type species: Coluber argenteus Daudin, 1803 , by original designation.

Synonyms: Oxybelis Wagler, 1830 ; Philodryas Wagler, 1830 .

Content: (two species) Xenoxybelis argenteus (Daudin, 1803) ; Xenoxybelis boulengeri (Procter, 1923) species name revalidated.

Diagnosis: Xenoxybelis can be distinguished from the other genera of Philodryadini by the following combination of characters: markedly elongated snout, forming an acuminated and sharp head shape; large number of prediastemal maxillary teeth (16-21), followed by one or two grooved postdiastemal teeth; short heart-shaped hemipenes with a well-defined papillate longitudinal crest, formed by the confluence of the body calyces, that runs medially in the asulcate surface; lateral surfaces of hemipenes covered with two to four rows of well-developed enlarged lateral spines ( Fig. 4 ).

Geographical distribution: Both species occur in the Amazonian region,from Colombia and Guianas to Bolivia and Paraguay ( Cunha & Nascimento, 1978; Prudente et al., 2008).

Etymology: The generic name of the South American Vine snake Xenoxybelis is formed by the Greek words Xenos- (adjective, ξέΝΟς, meaning “different”), -oxy- (adjective, Οξύς, meaning “sharp”), and -belos (noun, βέΛΟς, meaning “dart”), in reference to their external similarity with the unrelated Neotropical Vine snake genus Oxybelis Wagler, 1830 .

Comment: Zaher et al. (2009) and Grazziotin et al. (2012) placed Xenoxybelis and Pseudablabes under the synonymy of Philodryas . With this nomenclatural act, Philodryas boulengeri Werner, 1909 and Philodryas boulengeri (Procter, 1923) became secondary homonyms ( Grazziotin et al., 2012),resulting in the proposition of the new replacement name georgeboulengeri for the latter species.According to our phylogenetic results, returning Philodryas georgeboulengeri (Procter,1923) to the revalidated genus Xenoxybelis eliminates the homonymy. Therefore, we revalidate the species name Xenoxybelis boulengeri (Procter, 1923) .

Figures

Figure 4. Hemipenis of Philodryas chamissonis (MNHN 3807) in A and B, Tropidodryas serra (MNRJ 7354) in C and D,and Xenoxybelis argenteus (BMNH 1994.7000) in E and F.Photographs in A,C,and E are in sulcate views,and photographs in B, D,and F are inasulcate views.Scale bars:5 mm.