Rhinophis

Rhinophis

Taxonavigation

Taxonavigation: Uropeltoidea

Superregnum: Eukaryota Cladus: Amorphea Cladus: Obazoa Cladus: Opisthokonta Cladus: Holozoa Cladus: Filozoa Cladus: Choanozoa Regnum: Animalia Subregnum: Eumetazoa Cladus: ParaHoxozoa Cladus: Bilateria Cladus: Nephrozoa Superphylum: Deuterostomia Phylum: Chordata Cladus: Olfactores Subphylum: Vertebrata Infraphylum: Gnathostomata Cladus: Eugnathostomata Cladus: Osteichthyes Cladus: Sarcopterygii Cladus: Rhipidistia Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes Cladus: Elpistostegalia Cladus: Stegocephali Cladus: Tetrapoda Cladus: Reptiliomorpha Cladus: Amniota Cladus: Sauropsida Classis: Reptilia Cladus: Eureptilia Cladus: Romeriida Cladus: Diapsida Cladus: Neodiapsida Cladus: Sauria Cladus: Lepidosauromorpha Subclassis: Lepidosauria Ordo: Squamata Cladus: Unidentata, Episquamata Cladus: Toxicofera Subordo: Serpentes Cladus: Henophidia Superfamilia: Uropeltoidea

Familia: Uropeltidae
Genus: Rhinophis
Species (27): R. blythii – R. dinarzardae – R. dorsimaculatus – R. drummondhayi – R. erangaviraji – R. fergusonianus – R. goweri – R. gunasekarai – R. homolepis – R. karinthandani – R. lineatus – R. martin – R. melanogaster – R. melanoleucus – R. mendisi – R. oxyrhynchus – R. philippinus – R. phillipsi – R. porrectus – R. punctatus – R. roshanpererai – R. saffragamus – R. sanguineus – R. siruvaniensis – R. travancoricus – R. tricoloratus – R. zigzag

Name

Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820: 119

• Type species: Anguis oxyrynchus Schneider, 1801, by subsequent designation by Wagler (1830: 195).

Synonyms

• Pseudotyphlops Schlegel, 1839: 40
  • Type species: Uropeltis philippinus Müller, 1832, by subsequent designation of Smith (1943: 93).

• Dapatnaya Kelaart, 1853: 107
  • Type species: Dapatnaya lankadivana Kelaart, 1853, by subsequent designation of Smith (1943: 87).

• Mitylia Gray, 1858: 261
  • Type species: Mitylia gerrardi Gray, 1858, by monotypy.

• Crealia Gray, 1858: 264
  • Type species: Mytilia melanogaster Gray, 1858, by monotypy.

References

Primary references

• Hemprich, W. 1820. Grundriss der Naturgeschichte fur hohere Lehranstalten. August Rücker: Berlin. 432 pp.
• Kelaart, E.F. 1853. Description of new or little-known species of reptiles found in Ceylon. Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2(6): 102–116. BHL Reference page. 
• Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, including the whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. Taylor and Francis: London. xii + 583 pp., 166 text figures. PDF Reference page. 

Additional references

• Gower, D.J. & Maduwage, K. 2011. Two new species of Rhinophis Hemprich (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 2881(1): 51–68. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2881.1.4 Reference page. 
• Gower, D.J. & Wickramsinghe, L.J.M. 2016. Recharacterization of Rhinophis dorsimaculatus Deraniyagala, 1941 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae), including description of new material. Zootaxa 4158(2): 203–212. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4158.2.3. Reference page. 
• Wickramasinghe, Mendis L.J., Vidanapathirana, D.R., Rajeev, M.D.G. & Gower, D.J. 2017. A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the central hills of Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 4263(1): 153–164. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4263.1.7. Reference page. 
• Gower, D.J. 2020. A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from southwestern Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 4810(3): 495–510. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4810.3.6 Reference page. 
• Cyriac, V.P., Narayanan, S., Sampaio, F.L., Umesh, P. & Gower, D.J. 2020. A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the Wayanad region of peninsular India. Zootaxa 4778(2): 329–342. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4778.2.5 Reference page. 
• Sampaio, F.L., Narayanan, S., Cyriac, V.P., Venu, G. & Gower, D.J. 2020. A new Indian species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 closely related to R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae). Zootaxa 4881(1): 1–24. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4881.1.1 Reference page. 
• Wickramasinghe, J.L.M., Vidanapathirana, D.R., Wickramasinghe, N. & Gower, D.J. 2020. A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Reptilia: Uropeltidae), from cloud forest of the Knuckles massif of Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 4810(1): 65–80. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4810.1.3 Reference page. 
• Gower, D.J., Sampaio, F.L., Vidanapathirana, D.R. & Wickramasinghe, L.J.M. 2024. Two new species of the shieldtail snake genus Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae), from the Rakwana and the Knuckles Massifs of Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 5458(3): 332–360. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5458.3.2 Reference page. 
• Cyriac, V.P., Umesh, P.K., Achyuthan, N.S., Kulkarni, V. & Ganesh, S.R. 2025. A new species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 (Squamata, Uropeltidae) from Siruvani Hills, Western Ghats, India. Evolutionary Systematics 9(2): 191–201. DOI: 10.3897/evolsyst.9.150536 Reference page. 

Links

• Uetz, P., Freed, P., Aguilar, R., F. Reyes, J. Kudera & Hošek, J. (eds.) 2025. Rhinophis . The Reptile Database. Accessed on 20 October 2025.

Vernacular names

• English: Shieldtail Snakes

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