Citation: Midtgaard, Rune. RepFocus - A Survey of the Reptiles of the World. (www.repfocus.dk).
Latest update: October 31st, 2023.
 
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Genus
Eryx
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Sand Boas
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Echte Sandboas
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Sandboaer
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1803 |  |
Eryx Daudin (type species: Boa turcica Olivier 1801) |
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1803 | |
Clothonia Daudin (type species: Boa anguiformis Schneider 1801; syn. Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014) |
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1830 | |
Gongylophis Wagler (type species: Boa conica Schneider 1801; syn. Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014) |
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1849 | |
Cusoria Gray (type species: Cusoria elegans Gray 1849; syn. Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014) |
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1989 | |
Pseudogongylophis Tokar (type species: Eryx jayakari Boulenger 1888; syn. Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014) |
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1989 | |
Neogongylophis Tokar (type species: Anguis colubrina Linnaeus 1758; syn. Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014) |
Contents:
13 species, of which 3 (23.1%) are endemic.
Endemism: 0%  100%
Remarks:
Tokar (1995) revalidated Gongylophis, including three species (colubrinus, conicus, muelleri). Kluge (1993) retained Gongylophis as a synonym of Eryx, considering the recognition of Gongylophis as a valid genus as premature, and several authors have followed him (e.g., Baha el Din 2006; Noonan & Chippindale 2006; Pyron, Reynolds & Burbrink 2014; Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014).
Distribution:
Africa, SE. Europe, Middle East, C. and S. Asia.
Reported from:
Afghanistan,
Albania,
Algeria,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Bahrain,
Bangladesh,
Benin,
Bulgaria,
Burkina Faso,
Cameroon,
Central African Republic,
Chad,
China
(Gansu,
Inner Mongolia,
Ningxia,
Xinjiang),
Djibouti,
Egypt
(incl.
Sinai),
Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
Gambia,
Georgia,
Ghana,
Greece
(incl.
Aegean Islands
[incl.
Cyclades Islands]),
India
(Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar,
Chhattisgarh,
Delhi,
Goa,
Gujarat,
Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir,
Jharkhand,
Karnataka,
Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Odisha,
Punjab,
Rajasthan,
Tamil Nadu,
Telangana,
Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand,
West Bengal),
Iran,
Iraq,
Israel,
Italy
(Sicily),
Ivory Coast,
Jordan,
Kazakhstan,
Kenya,
Kuwait,
Kyrgyzstan,
Libya,
Mali,
Mauritania,
Mongolia,
Morocco,
Nepal,
Niger,
Nigeria,
North Macedonia,
Oman,
Pakistan,
Qatar,
Romania,
Russia,
Saudi Arabia,
Senegal,
Somalia,
South Sudan,
Sri Lanka,
Sudan,
Syria,
Tajikistan,
Tanzania,
Togo,
Tunisia,
Turkey
(incl.
European Turkey),
Turkmenistan,
Uganda,
United Arab Emirates,
Uzbekistan,
Yemen.
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Eryx borrii
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Northern Somali Sand Boa, Guban Sand Boa
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Nordsomalische Sandboa
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Nordsomalisk Sandboa
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2005 | |
Eryx borrii Lanza & Nistri |
Distribution:
Somalia.
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Eryx colubrinus
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East African Sand Boa, Egyptian Sand Boa, Theban Sand Boa
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Ostafrikanische Sandboa, Ägyptische Sandboa
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Østafrikansk Sandboa, Ægyptisk Sandboa, Kenyansk Sandboa (loveridgei)
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1758 | |
Anguis colubrina Linnaeus |
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Eryx colubrina Flower 1933 |
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Gongylophis colubrinus Boulenger 1892 |
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1834 | |
Eryx thebaicus Reuss (Tokar 1995) |
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1842 | |
Eryx scutata Gray (Tokar 1995) |
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1863 | |
Eryx jaculus sennaariensis Jan (Kluge 1993) |
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1932 | |
Eryx thebaicus loveridgei Stull (Tokar 1996) |
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Eryx colubrinus loveridgei Stull 1935 |
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1933 | |
Eryx rufescens Ahl (Tokar 1996) |
Other common names:
loveridgei: Kenya Sand Boa
Remarks:
A record from Yemen (Scortecci 1932) is considered unreliable and needs confirmation (Gasperetti 1988).
Introduced to:
USA
(Florida).
Distribution:
Chad,
Djibouti,
Egypt,
Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
Kenya,
Niger,
Somalia,
South Sudan,
Sudan,
Tanzania,
Uganda.
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Eryx colubrinus
© Rune Midtgaard
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Eryx conicus
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Rough-scaled Sand Boa, Common Indian Sand Boa, Chain Sand Boa, (Red Earth Boa, Common Earth Snake, Russell's Sand Boa, Russell's Earth Boa, Schneider's Earth Boa)
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Rauschuppen-Sandboa, Gefleckte Sandboa
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Ruskællet Sandboa, Almindelig Indisk Sandboa
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1801 | |
Boa Conica Schneider |
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Gongylophis conicus Wagler 1842 |
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Eryx conicus Duméril & Bibron 1844 |
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1802 | |
Boa viperina Shaw (Stimson 1969) |
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1803 | |
Boa ornata Daudin (Stimson 1969) |
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1830 | |
Erix bengalensis [unjustified emendation] Guerin (McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999) |
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Tortrix eryx bengalensis Schlegel 1837 |
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1869 | |
Eryx conicus laevis Peters (McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999) |
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1951 | |
Eryx conicus brevis Deraniyagala |
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1971 | |
Eryx conicus gansi Rajendran (McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999) |
Distribution:
Bangladesh,
India
(Andhra Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh,
Delhi,
Goa,
Gujarat,
Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir,
Jharkhand,
Karnataka,
Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Odisha,
Punjab,
Rajasthan,
Tamil Nadu,
Telangana,
Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand,
West Bengal),
Nepal,
Pakistan,
Sri Lanka.
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Eryx elegans
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Slender Sand Boa
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Zentralasiatische Sandboa, Afghanische Sandboa
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Centralasiatisk Sandboa
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1849 | |
Cusoria elegans Gray |
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Eryx elegans Blanford 1876 |
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1916 | |
Eryx jaculus czarewskii Nikolsky (Stimson 1969) |
Remarks:
Records from northeastern Iran refer to jaculus (Eskandarzadeh, Darvish, Rastegar-Pouyani & Ghassemzadeh 2013).
Distribution:
Afghanistan,
Iran,
Turkmenistan.
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Eryx jaculus
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Western Sand Boa, Javelin Sand Boa, Spotted Sand Boa
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Westliche Sandboa, Türkische Sandboa, Europäische Sandboa
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Europæisk Sandboa
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1758 | |
Anguis jaculus Linnaeus |
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Eryx jaculus Daudin 1803 |
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1758 | |
Anguis cerastes Linnaeus (Stimson 1969) |
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Eryx cerastes Daudin 1803 |
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1801 | |
Boa turcica Olivier |
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Eryx turcicus Daudin 1803 |
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Eryx jaculus turcicus Carevsky 1916 |
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1831 | |
Eryx familiaris Eichwald |
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Eryx jaculus familiaris Carevsky 1916 |
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1837 | |
Tortrix eryx Schlegel (McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999) |
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1865 | |
Eryx jaculus var. teherana Jan (Stimson 1969) |
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1907 | |
Eryx persicus Nikolsky (McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999) |
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Eryx johnii persicus Stull 1935 |
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1916 | |
Eryx jaculus proprius Carevsky (Stimson 1969) |
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1928 | |
Eryx jaculus urmianus Rostombekov (Stimson 1969) |
Other common names:
familiaris: Caucasian Sand Boa
persicus: Persian Red Sand Boa, Persian Sand Boa
turcicus: Turkish Sand Boa
Remarks:
Some authors have regarded persicus as a subspecies of johni (e.g., Stull 1935; Stimson 1969).
Records of this species from northwestern Afghanistan should probably be referred to tataricus (Leviton & Anderson 1970).
A single record from Cyprus with no recent confirmation (Göcmen, Atatür, Budak, Bahar, Yildiz & Alpagut-Keskin 2009).
Tokar & Obst (in Böhme, ed. 1993) erroneously mention a locality in Crete, but it is actually in Corfu, as also indicated by their map.
Distribution:
Albania,
Algeria,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Bulgaria,
Egypt
(incl.
Sinai),
Georgia,
Greece
(incl.
Aegean Islands
[incl.
Cyclades Islands]),
Iran,
Iraq,
Israel,
Italy
(Sicily),
Jordan,
Libya,
Morocco,
North Macedonia,
Romania,
Russia,
Saudi Arabia,
Syria,
Tunisia,
Turkey
(incl.
European Turkey).
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Eryx jaculus
© Henrik Bringsøe
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Eryx jayakari
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Arabian Sand Boa
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Arabische Sandboa
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Arabisk Sandboa
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1888 | |
Eryx Jayakari Boulenger |
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1913 | |
Eryx fodiens Annandale (Stimson 1969) |
Distribution:
Bahrain,
Iran,
Iraq,
Kuwait,
Oman,
Qatar,
Saudi Arabia,
United Arab Emirates,
Yemen.
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Eryx johnii
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Red Sand Boa, Stump-tailed Sand Boa, Blunt-tailed Sand Boa, Brown Sand Boa, Black Earth Boa, Smooth Sand Boa, (Indian Sand Boa, John's Sand Boa, John's Earth Snake)
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Indische Sandboa
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Rød Sandboa
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1801 | |
Boa Johnii Russell |
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Clothonia johnii Gray 1842 |
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Eryx jaculus johni Ingoldby 1923 |
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Eryx johnii Duméril & Bibron 1844 |
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1801 | |
Boa anguiformis Schneider (Stimson 1969) |
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Clothonia anguiformis Daudin 1803 |
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1837 | |
Tortrix eryx indicus Schlegel (Stimson 1969) |
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1849 | |
Eryx maculatus Hallowell (Stimson 1969) |
Other common names:
johni: Eastern Red Sand Boa
Remarks:
See under jaculus.
Records from Iran refer to sistanensis (Gholamifard & Bauer 2022).
Distribution:
India
(Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar,
Chhattisgarh,
Delhi,
Goa,
Gujarat,
Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir,
Karnataka,
Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Odisha,
Punjab,
Rajasthan,
Tamil Nadu,
Telangana,
Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand,
West Bengal),
Nepal,
Pakistan.
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Eryx johnii
© Rune Midtgaard
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Eryx miliaris
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Desert Sand Boa, Dwarf Sand Boa, Common Dwarf Sand Boa, (Turkish Sand Boa)
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Östliche Sandboa, Wüsten-Sandboa, Zwerg-Sandboa
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Ørkensandboa
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1773 | |
Anguis miliaris Pallas |
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Eryx miliaris Eichwald 1831 |
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Eryx jaculus miliaris Boettger 1888 |
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1814 | |
Eryx helluo Pallas (Stimson 1969) |
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1910 | |
Eryx miliaris nogaiorum Nikolsky (Stimson 1969) |
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1916 | |
Eryx miliaris incerta Carevsky (Stimson 1969) |
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1916 | |
Eryx miliaris rarus Carevsky (Stimson 1969) |
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1916 | |
Eryx miliaris tritus Carevsky (Stimson 1969) |
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1916 | |
Eryx tataricus bogdanovi Carevsky (Stimson 1969) |
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1930 | |
Eryx rickmersi Werner (Stimson 1969) |
Other common names:
nogaiorum: Kalmyk Sand Boa
Remarks:
See under tataricus.
A single record from Afghanistan (Leviton 1959) refers to tataricus (Wagner, Bauer, Leviton, Wilms & Böhme 2016).
Presence in Iran is also unconfirmed (Zarrintab, Milto, Eskandarzadeh, Zangi, Jahan, Kami, Rastegar-Pouyani, Rastegar-Pouyani & Rajabizadeh 2017), although included
for the country by several authors (e.g., Anderson 1963; Latifi 1991; Darevsky in Böhme (ed.) 1993; Rastegar-Pouyani, Kami, Rajabzadeh, Shafiei & Anderson 2008;
Sindaco, Venchi & Grieco 2013; Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Majd, Yousefkhani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Rajabizadeh, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi & Kazemi 2015).
There are also records from Iraq (Habeeb & Rastegar-Pouyani 2016; Rhadi, Mohammed, Rastegar-Pouyani, Rastegar-Pouyani & Yousefkhani 2017, both
as "cf. miliaris"), which most likely represent another species, considering the distance to the nearest other records in Central Asia.
Distribution:
China
(Gansu,
Inner Mongolia,
Ningxia,
Xinjiang),
Kazakhstan,
Russia,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan.
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Eryx miliaris
© Rune Midtgaard
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Eryx muelleri
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West African Sand Boa, Sahara Sand Boa, (Mueller's North African Sand Boa)
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Sahara-Sandboa, Afrikanische Sandboa
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Vestafrikansk Sandboa
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1892 | |
Gongylophis Muelleri Boulenger |
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Eryx muelleri Boulenger 1893 |
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1938 | |
Eryse muelleri subniger [lapsus] Angel (Tokar 1995) |
Remarks:
Reports from Sierra Leone (e.g., Aylmer 1922; McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999) are considered erroneous (Trape & Baldé 2014).
Introduced to:
USA
(Florida).
Distribution:
Benin,
Burkina Faso,
Cameroon,
Central African Republic,
Chad,
Gambia,
Ghana,
Ivory Coast,
Mali,
Mauritania,
Niger,
Nigeria,
Senegal,
Sudan,
Togo.
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Eryx sistanensis
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Sistan Sand Boa
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Sistan-Sandboa
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Sistan-sandboa
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2020 | |
Eryx sistanensis Eskandarzadeh, Rastegar-Pouyani, Rastegar-Pouyani, Zargan, Hajinourmohamadi, Nazarov, Sami, Rajabizadeh, Nabizadeh & Navaian |
Remarks:
Records of johni from Iran refer to sistanensis (Gholamifard & Bauer 2022).
Distribution:
Iran.
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Eryx somalicus
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Southern Somali Sand Boa
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Südsomalische Sandboa
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Sydsomalisk Sandboa
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1939 | |
Eryx somalicus Scortecci |
Distribution:
Ethiopia,
Somalia.
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Eryx tataricus
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Tatary Sand Boa, Tarar Sand Boa
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Grosse Sandboa, Tatarische Sandboa
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Tatarisk Sandboa
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1823 | |
Boa tatarica Lichtenstein |
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Eryx tataricus Carevsky 1916 |
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1907 | |
Eryx miliaris koslowi Bedriaga (Tokar 1986) |
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1907 | |
Eryx miliaris roborowskii Bedriaga (Tokar 1986) |
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1916 | |
Eryx speciosus Carevsky |
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Eryx tataricus speciosus Terentjev & Chernov 1940 |
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1959 | |
Eryx tataricus vittatus Chernov |
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Eryx vittatus Tokar 1989 |
Other common names:
vittatus: Striped Sand Boa
Remarks:
McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré (1999) listed koslowi and roborowskii as synonyms of miliaris.
Some authors regard speciosus as a separate species, endemic to Tajikistan
(e.g., Ananjeva, Orlov, Khalikov, Darevsky, Ryabov & Barabanov 2006; Sindaco, Venchi & Grieco 2013).
Others regard vittatus as a separate species
(e.g., Tokar 1989; Szczerbak 2003; Sindaco, Venchi & Grieco 2013; Wallach, Williams & Boundy 2014; Reynolds & Henderson 2018),
while some regard it as a synonym or subspecies of tataricus (e.g., McDiarmid, Campbell & Touré 1999).
Szczerbak (2003) and Sindaco, Venchi & Grieco (2013) considered vittatus endemic to Tajikistan, although it may occur in Turkmenistan,
according to the latter authors.
Reynolds & Henderson (2018) listed the distribution of vittatus as Central Asia, from northern Iran through northern Afghanistan and Pakistan to Kyrgyzstan
and extreme eastern (obviously an error - they surely meant "western"!) China.
Records from northeastern Iran refer to jaculus (Eskandarzadeh, Darvish, Rastegar-Pouyani & Ghassemzadeh 2013).
Distribution:
Afghanistan,
China
(Gansu,
Inner Mongolia,
Ningxia,
Xinjiang),
Iran,
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Mongolia,
Pakistan,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan.
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Eryx whitakeri
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Kerala Sand Boa, (Whitaker's Sand Boa)
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Whitakers Sandboa
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Kerala-sandboa
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|
1991 | |
Eryx whitakeri Das |
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Gongylophis whitakeri Tokar 1995 |
Distribution:
India
(Goa,
Karnataka,
Kerala,
Maharashtra).
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