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Citation: Midtgaard, Rune. RepFocus - A Survey of the Reptiles of the World. (www.repfocus.dk).
Latest update: December 31st, 2022.


Taxonomy of the family Colubridae
Bibliography of the genus Clelia
Biodiversity of the family Colubridae








Genus
Clelia

Northern Snake Eaters, Northern Mussuranas

Nördlicher Schlangenfresser, Mussuranas

Nordlige Slangeædere, Nordlige Mussuranaer

1826 Clelia Fitzinger (type species: Coluber clelia Daudin 1803)
1843 Deiropeda Fitzinger (type species: Coluber clelia Daudin 1803)
1843 Hydroscopus Fitzinger (type species: Coluber plumbeus Wied 1820)
1853 Brachyrruton Dumeril (type species: none designated; syn. Bailey in Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970)
1924 Barbourina Amaral (type species: Barbourina equatoriana Amaral 1924)
Contents: 6 species, of which 2 (33.3%) are endemic. In addition to this, 1 endemic species (errabunda) is considered extinct.
Endemism: 0% 100%
Remarks: Previously included the species now placed in Mussurana and Paraphimophis.
Distribution: Mexico, Central America, South America, Lesser Antilles.
Reported from: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil (Acre, Alagoas, Amapa, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceara, Distrito Federal, Espirito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para [incl. Marajo Island], Parana, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondonia, Roraima, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo [incl. Sao Sebastiao], Tocantins), Colombia (incl. Gorgona Island), Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatan), Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago (Trinidad), Venezuela.

Clelia clelia

Common Snake Eater, Black Mussurana, Cribo, Windward Clelia

Gewöhnliche Schlangenfresser

Almindelig Slangeæder

1803 Coluber clelia Daudin
Brachyruton cloelia [sic] Duméril, Bibron & Duméril 1854
Clelia clelia Fitzinger 1826
Oxyrhopus clelia Cope 1878
Pseudoboa clelia Ditmars 1931
1826 Clelia daudinii Fitzinger (Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970)
1854 Brachyruton occipito-luteum Duméril, Bibron & Duméril (Scrocchi & Viñas 1990)
Pseudoboa occipitolutea Serié 1936
Clelia occipitolutea Bailey in Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970
1965 Clelia clelia groomei Greer

Remarks: Previously included plumbea. The clelia/equatoriana/scytalina species group is in need of revision, and there has been much confusion about the distribution of this genus in Mexico (Wilson & Johnson 2010). Only scytalina is currently believed to occur in the country (Stuart 1963; Bailey 1970; Smith & Pérez-Higareda 1989; Lee 1996; Wilson & Johnson 2010), although clelia possibly enters the country at the base of the Yucatan Peninsula, having been found close to the border in Belize and Guatemala. Records from Dominica are erroneous (Underwood 1993). Specific epithet has sometimes been misspelled cloelia.
Extinct in: Antigua & Barbuda (Barbuda).
Distribution: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil (Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Para [incl. Marajo Island], Rondonia, Roraima, Tocantins), Colombia (incl. Gorgona Island), Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago (Trinidad), Venezuela.


Clelia equatoriana

Equatorial Snake Eater

Äkvatoriale Schlangenfresser

Ækvator-slangeæder

1924 Barbourina equatoriana Amaral
Clelia equatoriana Bailey in Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970

Remarks: The clelia/equatoriana/scytalina group is in need of revision (Wilson & Johnson 2010). Records from Costa Rica are considered to represent scytalina (Acosta Chaves, Ballesteros, Batista, García Rodríguez, Ines Hladki, Ramírez Pinilla, Renjifo, Saborío, Urbina, Vargas Álvarez & Caicedo 2016).
Distribution: Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru.


Clelia errabunda

Saint Lucia Snake Eater

Saint-Lucia-Schlangenfresser

Saint Lucia-slangeæder

1993 Clelia errabunda Underwood

Remarks: Extinct (Daltry, Powell & Henderson 2017).
Distribution: Saint Lucia.


Clelia hussami

Parana Snake Eater

Parana-Schlangenfresser

Parana-slangeæder

2003 Clelia hussami Morato, Franco & Sanches

Distribution: Brazil (Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina).


Clelia langeri

Bolivian Snake Eater

Bolivianische Schlangenfresser

Boliviansk Slangeæder

2005 Clelia langeri Reichle & Embert

Distribution: Bolivia.


Clelia plumbea

Plumbeous Snake Eater, Common Southeastern Snake Eater

Graue Schlangenfresser

Grå Slangeæder

1820 Coluber plumbeus Wied
Clelia clelia plumbea Bailey in Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970
Clelia plumbea Lema 1994

Remarks: Previously regarded as a subspecies of clelia (e.g., Bailey in Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970), but as a separate species in most recent publications (e.g., Lema 1994; Giraudo 2001; Giraudo & Scrocchi 2002; Centeno, Sawaya & Marques 2008; Cicchi, Sena, Peccinini-Seale & Duarte 2007; Jansen, Álvarez & Köhler 2009). According to Scrocchi & Viñas (1990), plumbea does not occur in Argentina. Not mentioned for Mato Grosso do Sul by Ferreira, Terra, Piatti, Delatorre, Strüssmann, Béda, Kawashita-Ribeiro, Landgref-Filho, Aoki, Campos, Souza, Ávila, Duleba, Martins, Rita & Albuquerque (2017).
Distribution: Argentina, Brazil (Alagoas, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceara, Distrito Federal, Espirito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para [incl. Marajo Island), Parana, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondonia, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo [incl. Sao Sebastiao], Tocantins), Paraguay.


Clelia scytalina

Mexican Snake Eater, Highland Snake Eater

Mexicanische Schlangenfresser

Mexicansk Slangeæder

1867 Scolecophis scytalinus Cope
Clelia scytalina Stuart 1963
1897 Oxyrhopus proximus Bocourt (Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970)
1942 Clelia clelia immaculata Smith (Peters & Orejas-Miranda 1970)

Remarks: Previously regarded as a synonym of clelia (e.g., Smith & Taylor 1945). Revalidated by Stuart (1963). See remarks under clelia. Known with certainty only as far south as Guatemala. Other records of this species south of Guatemala refer to equatoriana (Savage & Bolaños 2009).
Distribution: Belize, Guatemala, Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz).