Stegonotus (snake)

Stegonotus is a genus of snakes in the family Colubridae. Species of the genus Stegonotus are native to Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea.

Species

The genus Stegonotus contains 24 species which are recognized as being valid.

• Stegonotus admiraltiensis – Admiralty Islands ground snake
• Stegonotus aplini – Purari White ground snake
• Stegonotus aruensis – Aru Islands ground snake
• Stegonotus australis – Australian ground snake
• Stegonotus ayamaru – Ayamaru ground snake
• Stegonotus batjanensis – Bacan Island groundsnake, Batjan frog-eating snake
• Stegonotus borneensis – Borneo ground snake, Borneo frog-eating snake
• Stegonotus caligocephalus – Dark-headed Sabah ground snake
• Stegonotus cucullatus – Bird's Head Peninsula ground snake, slatey-grey snake
• Stegonotus derooijae – De Rooij's ground snake, Raja Ampat ground snake
• Stegonotus diehli – Diehl's little ground snake
• Stegonotus florensis – Flores ground snake
• Stegonotus guentheri – D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago ground snake, Milne Bay ground snake
• Stegonotus heterurus – Bismarck ground snake
• Stegonotus iridis – Iridescent ground snake, Rainbow ground ₪snake
• Stegonotus keyensis – Kei Islands ground snake
• Stegonotus lividus – Semau Island ground snake
• Stegonotus melanolabiatus – Black-lipped ground snake
• Stegonotus modestus – Moluccan ground snake, Maluku ground snake, northern frog-eating snake
• Stegonotus muelleri – Philippine ground snake
• Stegonotus nancuro – Timor ground snake
• Stegonotus parvus – Biak Island ground snake, common ground snake
• Stegonotus poechi – Pöch's ground snake
• Stegonotus reticulatus – Reticulated ground snake
• Stegonotus sutteri – Sumba ground snake

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Stegonotus.

Etymology

The specific name, aplini, is in honor of Australian herpetologist and mammalogist .

The specific name, derooijae, is in honor of Dutch herpetologist Nelly de Rooij.

The specific name, diehli, is in honor of German missionary Wilhelm Diehl (1874–1940), who collected herpetological specimens in New Guinea.

The specific name, guentheri, is in honor of German-born British herpetologist Albert Günther.

The specific name, muelleri, is in honor of German herpetologist Johannes Peter Müller.

The specific name, poechi, is in honor of Austrian ethnologist & anthropologist Rudolf Pöch.

The specific name, sutteri, is in honor of Swiss ornithologist Ernst Sutter.

References

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families ... Colubridæ Aglyphæ, part. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. (Genus Stegonotus, pp. 364–365).
• Duméril A-M-C, Bibron G, Duméril A[-H-A] (1854). Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Première partie. Comprenant l'histoire des serpents non venimeux. [=General Herpetology or the Complete Natural History of the Reptiles. Volume 7. First Part. Containing the Natural History of the Nonvenomous Snakes]. Paris: Roret. xvi + 780 pp. (Stegonotus, new genus, pp. 680–682; S. muelleri, new species, pp. 682–683). (in French).
• , , , , , (2017). "Cryptic and non-cryptic diversity in New Guinea ground snakes of the genus Stegonotus Duméril, Bibron and Duméril, 1854: a description of four new species (Squamata: Colubridae)". Journal of Natural History 30: 1-28.