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Citation: Midtgaard, Rune. RepFocus - A Survey of the Reptiles of the World. (www.repfocus.dk).
Latest update: August 22nd, 2022.


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








Genus
Meizodon

African Smooth Snakes, Bush Snakes

Afrikanische Glattnattern

Afrikanske Glatsnoge

1856 Meizodon Fischer (type species: Meizodon regularis Fischer 1856)
1863 Calonotus Jan (type species: Calamaria coronata Schlegel 1837)
Contents: 5 species, of which 1 (20.0%) is endemic.
Endemism: 0% 100%
Distribution: SubSaharan Africa.
Reported from: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Kinshasa, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Meizodon coronatus

West African Crowned Smooth Snake, Western Crowned Snake, Coronated Smooth Snake

Westafrikanische Glattnatter

Vestafrikansk Glatsnog

1837 Calamaria coronata Schlegel
Coronella coronata Boulenger 1894
Meizodon coronata Bogert 1940
1858 Coryphodon margaritiferus Günther (Loveridge 1957)
1860 Coronella bitorquata Günther (Loveridge 1957)
1863 Coronella elegans Jan (Loveridge 1957)
1933 Coronella regularis praeornata Angel (Loveridge 1957)
1951 Meizodon coronata camerunensis Monard (Loveridge 1957)

Remarks: Previously included regularis. Many specimens referred to as coronatus in older litterature (e.g., Bogert 1940, Chabanaud 1921, Hughes 1983, Monard 1951, Pitman 1974, Steindachner 1870, Stucki-Stirn 1979) are in fact regularis (Schätti 1985).
Distribution: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Kinshasa, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo.


Meizodon krameri

Tana Delta Smooth Snake

Tana-Glattnatter

Tana-glatsnog

1985 Meizodon krameri Schätti

Distribution: Kenya.


Meizodon plumbiceps

Black-headed Smooth Snake

Schwarzköpfige Glattnatter

Sorthovedet Glatsnog

1893 Coronella plumbiceps Boettger
Meizodon semiornatus plumbeiceps [sic] Loveridge 1957
Meizodon plumbiceps Hoevers & Johnson 1982
1932 Coronella somalica Scortecci (Largen & Rasmussen 1993)

Remarks: Schätti (1985) expected that the single specimen of plumbiceps reported from Yemen (Scortecci 1932) actually came from Somalia. Another specimen reported from Yemen (Spano 1972) was based on a misidentified specimen of the Platyceps variabilis complex (Gasperetti 1988).
Distribution: Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia.


Meizodon regularis

East African Crowned Smooth Snake, Eastern Crowned Snake

Ostafrikanische Glattnatter

Østafrikansk Glatsnog

1856 Meizodon regularis Fischer

Remarks: Previously regarded as a synonym of coronatus (e.g., Loveridge 1957). Revalidated as a separate species by Roux-Esteve (1969). Only a single record from Kenya (Spawls, Howell, Drewes & Ashe 2002). Chippaux & Jackson (2019) included Guinea-Bissau in the distribution, but no localities in the country were shown in their map. No other references have been found to support the presence of the species in Guinea-Bissau.
Distribution: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda.


Meizodon semiornatus

Semi-ornate Smooth Snake, Semi-ornate Snake, Southern Semi-ornate Snake, Barred Bush Snake

Afrikanische Gebänderte Glattnatter

Afrikansk Båndet Glatsnog

1854 Coronella semiornata Peters
Meizodon semiornatus Bogert 1940
1879 Zamenis fischeri Peters (Broadley 1983)
1884 Coronella inornata Fischer (Broadley 1983)
1908 Coronella scheffleri Sternfeld (Broadley 1983)
1912 Zamenis citernii Boulenger (Largen & Rasmussen 1993)
Coluber citernii Loveridge 1957
1917 Zamenis tchadensis Chabanaud
Meizodon semiornatus tchadensis Schätti 1985
1935 Coronella semiornata mossambicae Cott (Broadley 1983)
1940 Meizodon loveridgei Bogert (Chippaux 2001)

Other common names:
semiornatus: Southern Semiornate Snake
tchadensis: Chadian Crowned Snake
Remarks: A single record from Yemen is unreliable (in fact probably from Somalia) and refer to plumbiceps (Schätti 1985; Gasperetti 1988). Erroneously recorded from Zanzibar (Schätti 1985).
Distribution: Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.