Lamprophiidae

The Lamprophiidae are a family of snakes[1] found mostly in Africa, but also in parts of southern Europe and western Asia.[2] A few species reach southeastern Asia. There are 322 species as of April 2019.[3]

Lamprophiidae
Boaedon capensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Superfamily: Elapoidea
Family: Lamprophiidae
Fitzinger, 1843
Subfamilies

Biology

Lamprophiids are a very diverse group of snakes. Many are terrestrial but some are fossorial (e.g. Amblyodipsas), arboreal (e.g. Langaha), or semi-aquatic (e.g. Lycodonomorphus). Some are fast-moving (e.g. Psammophis) whereas others are slow (e.g. Duberria). They are found in deserts, grasslands, temperate and tropical forests, steppes and mountains. Together they feed on mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. Some species use constriction to subdue their prey (e.g. Boaedon), whereas others are highly venomous and dangerous to humans (e.g. Atractaspis). Tooth morphology within Lamprophiidae is probably more variable than within any other snake family. Most species are oviparous.

Classification

Most lamprophiids were historically considered to be members of the subfamily Lamprophiinae in the family Colubridae. The following classification follows Pyron et al., 2010,[2] whose finding that lamprophiids are more closely related to elapids has been repeated by several other studies.[4][5][6][7] Together these two groups are sometimes referred to as the Elapoidea. In fact, some studies have found that Elapidae is nested within Lamprophiidae,[6][7] a finding that, if confirmed, will likely necessitate taxonomic changes to restore monophyly within the Elapoidea.

List of subfamilies and genera
A psammophiine, Malpolon monspessulanus
A pseudaspidine, Pseudaspis cana
A pseudoxyrhophiine, Leioheterodon madagascariensis

References
  1. "Lamprophiidae - Die Systematik". www.dahmstierleben.de.
  2. Pyron RA, Burbrink FT, Colli GR, Montes de Oca AN, Vitt LJ, Kuczynski CA, Wiens JJ. 2010. The phylogeny of advanced snakes (Colubroidea), with discovery of a new subfamily and comparison of support methods for likelihood trees. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58: 329–342. Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Uetz, Peter. "Lamprophiidae". The Reptile Database. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  4. Pyron, R. A.; Burbrink, F.; Wiens, J. J. (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13: 93. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-93. PMC 3682911. PMID 23627680.
  5. Streicher, J. W.; Ruane, S. (2018). "Phylogenomics of Snakes". eLS: 1–8. doi:10.1002/9780470015902.a0027476.
  6. Figueroa, A.; McKelvy, A. D.; Grismer, L. L.; Bell, C. D.; Lailvaux, S. P. (2016). "A species-level phylogeny of extant snakes with description of a new colubrid subfamily and genus". PLoS ONE. 11: e0161070. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161070. PMC 5014348. PMID 27603205.
  7. Zheng, Y; Wiens, JJ (2016). "Combining phylogenomic and supermatrix approaches, and a time-calibrated phylogeny for squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) based on 52 genes and 4162 species" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 94: 537–547. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.10.009. PMID 26475614.
  8. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading
  • Fitzinger L. 1843. Systema Reptilium, Fasciculus Primus, Amblyglossae. Vienna: Braumüller & Seidel. 106 pp. + indices. ().
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