#telescopus

[herpsandbirds]

Beetz' Tiger Snake (Telescopus beetzi), family , in semi-arid Savannah, Northern Cape, South Africa

photograph by Frank Gaude

[herpsandbirds]

European or Mediterannean Cat Snake (Telescopus nigriceps), family Colubridae, Malta

Rear-fanged, mildly venomous.

photograph by Jeffrey Sciberras

[herpsandbirds]

Black-headed Cat Snake (Telescopus nigriceps), family Colubridae, Lebanon

Rear-fanged, mildly venomous.

photograph by Rami Khashab

[krabbler]

Rock'n'Crawl

Europäische Katzennatter (Telescopus fallax)

[snakebusters]

A logical break-up of the genus Telescopus Wagler, 1830 (Serpentes: Colubridae) along phylogenetic and morphological lines.. Australasian Journal of Herpetology ®, Issue 35, published 20 July 2017, pages 43-53. ABSTRACT The Catsnake genus Telescopus Wagler, 1830 as currently understood includes a diverse assemblage of distantly related and morphologically similar snakes from south-west Asia, southern Europe and north, central and southern Africa. The various species groups are self-evidently morphologically and regionally distinct and so it is surprising that not all have been formally named in accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al. 1999) or earlier codes. This paper breaks up the genus along logical lines, the result being as follows: Telescopus Wagler, 1830 (type species: Coluber obtusus Reuss, 1834) includes the North African assemblage commonly referred to in the literature as “the dhara-obtusus group”. Tarbophis Fleischmann, 1831 (type species: Tarbophis fallax Fleischmann, 1831) is treated as a subgenus of Telescopus and includes the species with a distribution centred on the Middle-east and nearby parts of southern Europe and south-west Asia. Ruivenkamporumus subgen. nov. is erected to accommodate two divergent species within Telescopus with a distribution centred on Pakistan and Iran. Elfakhariorumserpens gen. nov. is erected to accommodate the very different four described species-level taxa from south-west Africa, and another from sub-Saharan Africa, with Matsonserpens subgen. nov. erected to accommodate the sub-Saharan African species Dipsas variegata Reinhardt, 1843. Two species, formerly treated as variants of “Tarbophis nigriceps Ahl, 1924” are herein formally named as Telescopus (Tarbophis) mannixi sp. nov. and Telescopus (Tarbophis) gocmeni sp. nov.. Keywords: Taxonomy; nomenclature; snakes; Telescopus; Africa; Southern Africa; Middle-East; Catsnake; Colubridae; Tarbophis; semiannulatus; variegatus; nigriceps; new genus; Elfakhariorumserpens; new subgenus; Ruivenkamporumus; Matsonserpens; new species; mannixi; gocmeni.

[hubmall]

Cat Eyed Snake (Telescopus fallax) עין חתול חברבר

Cat Eyed Snake (Telescopus fallax) עין חתול חברבר

Cat Eyed Snake (Telescopus fallax) עין חתול חברבר Image by HyperViper Cat Eyed Snake (Ein Hatul Havarbar in hebrew) in a defensive/stiking position. altough this guy looks pretty scarry with a macro lens he was actually about 25cm (10inches) long and as thick as a pencil, his mouth was so small he couldnt even get it around my finger. This snake is a rear-fanged snake with a mild venom. For more…

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[libutron]

Cat Eyed Snake - Telescopus fallax

Commonly known with names such as Cat Eyed Snake, Soosan Snake, Mediterranean Cat Snake, and European Catsnake, Telescopus fallax (Colubridae) is a species of colubrid snake with wide distribution in the Mediterranean area, and in the Caucasus Mountains, including in Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgia and southern Russia, Iran and Iraq.

These snakes are opisthoglyphous (their rear fangs are grooved and possess venom injected by a pair of enlarged teeth), though their venom only affects small vertebrates, producing illness in humans if bitten. 

References: [1] - [2] - [3]

Photo credit: ©Guy Haimovitch | Locality: Shfela, Israel (2009)

[reptiglo-blog]

Tiger Snake (Telescopus semiannulatus) by cowyeow on Flickr.