Rhinophis

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Subordo: Serpentes
Superfamilia: Booidea

Familia: Uropeltidae
Genus: Rhinophis
Species (22): R. blythii – R. dorsimaculatus – R. drummondhayi – R. erangaviraji – R. fergusonianus – R. goweri – R. gunasekarai – R. homolepis – R. lineatus – R. melanogaster – R. melanoleucus – R. oxyrhynchus – R. philippinus – R. phillipsi – R. porrectus – R. punctatus – R. roshanpererai – R. saffragamus – R. sanguineus – R. travancoricus – R. tricoloratus – R. zigzag
Name

Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820: 119

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

References
Primary references

Hemprich, W. 1820. Grundriss der Naturgeschichte fur hohere Lehranstalten. August Rücker: Berlin. 432 pp.

Additional references

Gower, D.J. & Maduwage, K. 2011. Two new species of Rhinophis Hemprich (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 2881: 51–68. Preview PDF
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.
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 Open access 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 Paywall Reference page.

Links

Uetz, P. & Hallermann, J. 2021. Rhinophis . The Reptile Database. Accessed on 14 May 2020.
Rhinophis – Taxon details on Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Vernacular names
English: Shieldtail Snakes

Rhinophis is a genus of nonvenomous shield tail snakes found in Sri Lanka and South India.[2] Currently, 24 species (with no subspecies) are recognized in this genus. Of the 24 species, 18 are endemic to Sri Lanka, while 6 are endemic to South India.[3]

Geographic range

Found mainly in Sri Lanka and also in southern India. In Sri Lanka, this genus also occurs in low plains in the dry zone.[1]
Species

Species[2]	Taxon author[2]	Common name	Geographic range[1]
Rhinophis blythii	Kelaart, 1853	Blyth's earth snake	Sri Lanka in the hills of Central (Hatton and Pundluoya), Uva, Sabaragamuwa (Balangoda) and Southern Provinces.
Rhinophis dorsimaculatus	Deraniyagala, 1941	Polka-dot earth snake[4]	Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality in North Western Province.
Rhinophis drummondhayi	Wall, 1921	Drummond-Hay's earth snake	Sri Lanka in the Hills of Central and Uva Provinces (Haldumulla, Nanunukula and Uva Patnas at 1,200 m elevation).
Rhinophis erangaviraji	Wickramasinghe et al., 2009	Eranga Viraj's shield tail snake	Sri Lanka.
Rhinophis fergusonianus	Boulenger, 1896	Cardamom Hills shieldtail snake	Southern India in the Western Ghats: Cardamom Hills, Travancore.
Rhinophis goweri	Aengals & Ganesh, 2013		Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu in Bodha Malai Hills of Namakkal district.
Rhinophis gunasekarai	Wickramasinghe, Vidanapathirana, Wickramasinghe, & Gower, 2020	Gunasekara’s sheildtail	Sri Lanka (Central Province)
Rhinophis homolepis	(Hemprich, 1820)	Trevelyan's earth snake[4]	Sri Lanka in the Hills of Sabaragamuwa (Ratnapura, Yatiyantota and Balangoda Hills below 900 m), Central and Uva Provinces.
Rhinophis karinthandani	Sampaio et al., 2020[5]		Sri Lanka: Wayanad.
Rhinophis lineatus	Gower & Maduwage, 2011[6]	striped rhinophis	Sri Lanka
Rhinophis melanogaster	(Gray, 1858)	Gray's earth snake	Sri Lanka
Rhinophis melanoleucus	Cyriac, Narayanan, Sampaio, Umesh, & Gower, 2020		India (Kerala)
Rhinophis mendisi	Gower, 2020		Sri Lanka
Rhinophis oxyrynchusT	(Schneider, 1801)	Schneider's earth snake	Sri Lanka in the dry zone of Northern, Central and Eastern Provinces.
Rhinophis philippinus	(Cuvier, 1829)	Peters's Philippine earth snake	Sri Lanka in the Hills of Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces.
Rhinophis phillipsi	(Nicholls, 1929)	Phillips's earth snake	Sri Lanka
Rhinophis porrectus	Wall, 1921		Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality in North Western Province.
Rhinophis punctatus	J.P. Müller, 1832	Müller's earth snake	Sri Lanka in Central (Kandy, Peradeniya) and Western Provinces (Puttalam).
Rhinophis roshanpererai	Wickramasinghe et al., 2017[7]	Roshan Perera's shieldtail	Sri Lanka from central hills around Badulla
Rhinophis saffragamus	(Kelaart, 1853)	Large shieldtail snake	Sri Lanka
Rhinophis sanguineus	Beddome, 1863	Salty earth snake	Southern India in the Western Ghats: Mysore (Koppa, Kalsa), Waynad, Nilgiris, Travancore and Tinnevelly Hills.
Rhinophis travancoricus	Boulenger, 1893	Travancore earth snake	Southern India: Travancore, from sea level to an elevation of about 1,200 m in the hills. In Trivandrum, Peermade, Mahendragiri, Ernakulam and Chenganacherry.
Rhinophis tricoloratus	Deraniyagala, 1975		Sri Lanka. Known only from the type locality: "vicinity of the rain forest of Sinha Raja to the south west of Ratnapura at an elevation of 1,500 feet with a rainfall of over 200 inches per annum.
Rhinophis zigzag	Gower & Maduwage, 2011[6]	Zigzag rhinophis	Sri Lanka

*) Not including the nominate subspecies.
T) Type species.[1]
References

McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
"Rhinophis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
Sampaio, Filipa L.; Narayanan, Surya; Cyriac, Vivek Philip; Venu, Govindappa; Gower, David J. (2020-11-18). "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. ISSN 1175-5334.
The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
Sampaio, Filipa L.; Narayanan, Surya; Cyriac, Vivek Philip; Venu, Govindappa & Gower, David J. (2020-11-18). "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.
Gower, D.J.; Mduwage, K. (2011). "Two new species of Rhinophis Hemprich (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from Sri Lanka" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2881: 51–68.
Wickramasinghe, L. J. Mendis; Vidanapathirana, Dulan Ranga; Rajeev, M. D. Gehan & Gower, David 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.