Chilorhinophis gerardi

Chilorhinophis gerardi, commonly known as Gerard's black and yellow burrowing snake or Gerard's two-headed snake, is a species of venomous snake in the family Atractaspididae.[2] The species is endemic to Africa.

Chilorhinophis gerardi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Lamprophiidae
Genus:	Chilorhinophis
Species:	C. gerardi
Binomial name
Chilorhinophis gerardi (Boulenger, 1913)
Synonyms[1]
Apostolepis gerardi Boulenger, 1913 Parkerophis gerardi — Barbour & Amaral, 1927 Chilorhinophis gerardi — de Witte & Laurent, 1947

Etymology

The specific name, gerardi, is in honor of Belgian physician and naturalist Pol Gérard (1886-1961) who collected the type specimen.[3]

Geographic range

C. gerardi is found in southern Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire), Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.[1]

Subspecies

Two subspecies of C. gerardi are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies.[4]

• Chilorhinophis gerardi gerardi (Boulenger, 1913)
• Chilorhinophis gerardi tanganyikae Loveridge, 1951

Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Chilorhinophis.

References

1. Chilorhinophis at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 8 May 2009.
2. "Chilorhinophis ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
3. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Chilorhinophis gerardi, p. 99).
4. "Chilorhinophis gerardi ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

• Barbour T, Amaral A (1927). "Studies on African Ophidia". Bull. Antivenin Inst. America 1 (1): 25–27.
• Boulenger GA (1913). "Description de deux reptiles nouveaux provenant du Katanga ". Revue Zoologique Africaine 3: 103–105. (Apostolepis gerardi, new species, pp. 103–104, Figure). (in French).
• Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Chilorhinophis gerardi, p. 67 + Plate 24).
• Loveridge A (1951). "On Reptiles and Amphibians from Tanganyika Territory Collected by C. J. P. Ionides". Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., Harvard 106 (4): 175–204. (Chilorhinophis gerardi tanganyikae, new subspecies, pp. 195-196).