Calliophis is a genus of venomous elapid snakes, one of several known commonly as oriental coral snakes or Asian coral snakes.
Species
Species in this genus are:
- Calliophis beddomei (M.A. Smith, 1943) – Beddome's coral snake (India)
- Calliophis bibroni (Jan, 1858) – Bibron's coral snake (India)
- Calliophis bilineatus (Peters, 1881) – Two-stripped coral snake (Philippines)
- Calliophis bivirgatus (F. Boie, 1827) – Blue Malaysian coral snake (Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand)
- Calliophis castoe E.N. Smith, Ogale, Deepak & Giri, 2012 – Castoe’s coral snake (India)
- Calliophis gracilis Gray, 1835 – Spotted coral snake (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore)
- Calliophis haematoetron E.N. Smith, Manamendra-Arachchi & Somweera, 2008 – Blood-bellied coral snake (Sri Lanka)
- Calliophis intestinalis (Laurenti, 1768) – Banded Malaysian coral snake (Indonesia, Malaysia)
- Calliophis maculiceps (Günther, 1858) – Speckled coral snake (Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)
- Calliophis melanurus (Shaw, 1802) – Slender coral snake, Indian coral snake (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)
- Calliophis nigrescens (Günther, 1862) – Black coral snake (India)
- Calliophis nigrotaeniatus (Peters, 1863) – banded Malaysian coral snake, striped coral snake (Indonesia, Malaysia )
- Calliophis philippinus (Günther, 1864) – Philippine coral snake (the Philippines)
- Calliophis salitan Brown, Smart, Leviton, & Smith, 2018 – Dinagat Island banded coral snake (the Philippines)
- Calliophis suluensis (Steindachner, 1891) – Sulu Islands banded coral snake (the Philippines)
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Calliophis.
Taxonomy
The former Calliophis calligaster, the barred coral snake (Philippines), is now in the genus Hemibungarus.
Both Kellogg's coral snake (formerly C. kelloggi ) (Vietnam, Laos, China) and MacClelland's coral snake (formerly C. macclellandi ) are now in the genus Sinomicrurus.
Behaviour
Snakes of the genus Calliophis are semifossorial.
References
Further reading
- Boulenger GA. 1896. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ), ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv 727 pp. Plates I-XXV. (Genus Callophis [sic], p. 396).
- Gray JE. 1834. Illustrations of Indian Zoology; Chiefly Selected from the Collection of Major-General Hardwicke, F.R.S., ... Vol. II. London: Adolphus Richter and Co. 102 plates. (Calliophis gracilis, Plate 86, Figures 1 & 3).
- Smith MA. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii 583 pp. (Genus Callophis [sic], pp. 418–419).
