Elapsoidea

Elapsoidea is a genus of venomous snakes, commonly known as African garter snakes, in the family Elapidae. Despite their common names, they are unrelated to the harmless North American garter snakes of the genus Thamnophis.

Elapsoidea
Elapsoidea sundevallii
Elapsoidea guentherii
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Elapidae
Genus:	Elapsoidea Bocage, 1866

Species

The following ten species are recognized as being valid.^[1]

• Elapsoidea boulengeri Boettger, 1895 – Boulenger's garter snake^[2] – Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
• Elapsoidea broadleyi Jakobsen, 1997 – Broadley's garter snake^[2] – Somalia
• Elapsoidea chelazzii Lanza, 1979 – Somali garter snake – Somalia
• Elapsoidea guentherii Bocage, 1866 – Günther's garter snake^[2] – Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe
• Elapsoidea laticincta (F. Werner, 1919) – Werner's garter snake^[2] – Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda
• Elapsoidea loveridgei Parker, 1949 – Loveridge's garter snake^[2] – Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
• Elapsoidea nigra Günther, 1888 – black garter snake – Tanzania
• Elapsoidea semiannulata Bocage, 1882 – Angolan garter snake – throughout central Africa
• Elapsoidea sundevallii (A. Smith, 1848) – Sundevall's garter snake^[2] – Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
• Elapsoidea trapei Mané, 1999 – Senegal garter snake – Senegal, Mauritania

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Elapsoidea.

References

1. Genus Elapsoidea at The Reptile Database
2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii +296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Elapsoidea boulengeri, p. 34; E. broadleyi, p. 39; E. guentherii, p. 110; E. laticincta, p. 282; E. loveridgei, p. 161; E. sundevallii, p. 258).

Further reading

• Bocage JVB (1866). "Reptiles nouveaux ou peu connus recueillis dans les possessions portugaises de l'Afrique occidentale, qui se trouvent au Muséum de Lisbonne ". Jornal de Sciencias Mathematicas Physicas e Naturales, Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa 1: 57–78. (Elapsoidea, new genus, p. 70). (in French).
• Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Genus Elapsoidea, p. 104).