Diaphorolepidini Jenner, 1981

Pyron, R. Alexander, Guayasamin, Juan M., Penafiel, Nicolas, Bustamante, Lucas & Arteaga, Alejandro, 2015, Systematics of Nothopsini (Serpentes, Dipsadidae), with a new species of Synophis from the Pacific Andean slopes of southwestern Ecuador, ZooKeys 541, pp. 109-147 : 117

Taxon classification Animalia Squamata Colubridae

Tribe Diaphorolepidini Jenner, 1981

Diaphorolepis Jan, 1863 (type genus by original designation)

Emmochliophis Fritts & Smith, 1969

Synophis Peracca, 1896

Etymology.

Apparently from the Greek diaphoros for “differentiated” and lepis for “scales,” likely referring to the enlarged vertebral scale row as compared to the rest of the dorsal scales.

Description.

A group of relatively small-sized (<550mm SVL) dipsadine snakes restricted to the Darien of Panama and northern Andes of South America with fused prefrontals and either an expanded vertebral scale row ( Diaphorolepis ) or expanded zygapophyses and neural spines in adults ( Emmochliophis and Synophis ).

Notes.

The tribe name has also been spelled ' Diaphorolepini ' by Sheehy (2012), but Diaphorolepidini is the correct spelling based on the suffix -lepis, for which the stem is -lepid + -ini. This is a greatly restricted definition of Diaphorolepidini over the original description ( Jenner 1981), which included Atractus , Chersodromus , Crisantophis , Elapomorphus , Enulius , Gomesophis , Pseudotomodon , Ptychophis , and Sordellina .