Hemorrhois ravergieri

spotted whip snake
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Subfamily:	Colubrinae
Genus:	Hemorrhois
Species:	H. ravergieri
Binomial name
Hemorrhois ravergieri (Ménétries, 1832)
Synonyms
Coluber ravergieri Ménétries, 1832 Zamenis caudælineatus Günther, 1858 Periops caudælineatus - Jan, 1865 Zamenis ravergieri - Boulenger, 1893 Elaphe caudaelineata - Schmidt, 1939 Hemorrhoi ravergieri - Nagy et al., 2004[1][2]

Hemorrhois ravergieri, commonly called the spotted whip snake is a species of snake found in Western Asia, Central Asia and South-Central Asia.

Geographic range

• Former Soviet Union (Caucasus), eastern shore of Caspian Sea east to E Kazakhstan,
• Greece (Kos), Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan,
• Syria, Israel, W Mongolia, NW China (Xinjiang)
• Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

Description

Dorsally it is tan or grayish, with a series of dark rhomboidal spots or crossbars, alternating with smaller spots on the sides. The spots usually become confluent posteriorly, and appear as dark stripes on the tail. There is a diagonal dark streak below the eye, and a similar subparallel streak from the back of the eye to the corner of the mouth. Ventrally it is whitish or covered with blackish dots.

The weakly keeled dorsal scales are arranged in 21 rows. The ventrals, which are obtusely angulate laterally, number 190-222; the anal is divided; and the subcaudals, which are paired, are 75-101.

Adults may attain 133 cm (4 ft 4 in) in total length, with a tail 32 cm (12 ¹⁄₂ in) long.^[3]

References

Citations

1. Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), Volume I. London. pp. 405-406.
2. The Reptile Database. www,reptile-database.org.
3. Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), Volume I. London. pp. 405-406.

Bibliography

• Böhme,W. 1993. Coluber ravergieri - Ravergiers Zornnatter. In: Böhme,W. (ed.), Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas, Band 3/I., Schlangen (Serpentes) I. Aula-Verlag Wiesbaden, pp. 145–154.
• Ménétries, E. 1832. Catalogue raisonné des objets de zoologie recueillis dans un voyage au caucase et jusqu'aux frontières actuelles de la Perse. L'Académie Impériale des Sciences, St. Pétersbourg.
• Schätti B. & Monsch, P. 2004. Systematics and phylogenetic relationships of Whip snakes (Hierophis Fitzinger) and Zamenis andreana Werner 1917 (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubrinae). Rev. Suisse Zool. 111 (2): 239-256.
• Schweiger, Mario. 1991. Coluber ravergieri Menetries, 1832 - eine ungewöhnliche Zornnatter. Teil 1: Beschreibung, Verbreitung, Ökologie und Giftwirkung Herpetofauna 13 (70): 30-34.

External links

• Hemorrhois ravergieri at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database
• Coluber ravergieri at The Checklist of Armenia's Amphibians and Reptiles at Tadevosyan's Herpetological Resources. Accessed 30 March 2007.