Rhabdophis

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Cladus: Unidentata, Episquamata
Cladus: Toxicofera
Subordo: Serpentes
Infraordo: Caenophidia
Superfamilia: Colubroidea

Familia: Colubridae
Subfamilia: Natricinae
Genus: Rhabdophis
Species (31): R. adleri – R. akraios – R. angeli – R. auriculatus – R. barbouri – R. bindi – R. callichroma – R. callistus – R. ceylonensis – R. chiwen – R. chrysargoides – R. chrysargos – R. confusus – R. conspicillatus – R. flaviceps – R. guangdongensis – R. helleri – R. himalayanus – R. leonardi – R. lineatus – R. murudensis – R. nigrocinctus – R. nuchalis – R. pentasupralabialis – R. plumbicolor – R. rhodomelas – R. siamensis – R. spilogaster – R. subminiatus – R. swinhonis – R. tigrinus
Name

Rhabdophis Fitzinger, 1843: 27

Type species: Tropidonotus subminiatus Schlegel, 1837, by original designation.

Synonyms

Steirophis Fitzinger, 1843: 27
Type species: Tropidonotus chrysargos Schlegel, 1837, by original designation.

Bothrodytes Cope, 1886: 495
Type species: Tropidonotus subminiatus Schlegel, 1837, by original designation.

Macropisthodon Boulenger, 1893: 265 [synonymised by Takeuchi et al. (2018: 10226)]
Type species: Amphiesma flaviceps Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854, by subsequent designation.

Balanophis Smith, 1938: 583 [synonymised by Takeuchi et al. (2018: 10226)]
Type species: Tropidonotus chrysargus ceylonensis Günther, 1858, by original designation and monotypy.

Nuchisulcophis Mahendra, 1984 [synonymised by Williams & Wallach (1989)]
Type species: Tropidonotus nuchalis Boulenger, 1891, by original designation.

References
Primary references

Fitzinger, L. 1843. Systema Reptilium. Fasciculus primus. Amblyglossae. Braumüller et Seidel: Wien. vi + 106 pp. BHL Reference page.
Cope, E.D. 1886. An Analytical Table of the Genera of Snakes. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 23(124): 479–499. BHL
Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Natural History) Volume I. Containing the families Typhlopidæ, Glauconiidæ, Boidæ, Ilysiidæ, Uropeltidæ, Xenopeltidæ, and Colubridæ Aglyphæ, part. British Museum (Natural History): London. xiv + 448 pp. BHL Reference page.
Mahendra, B.C. 1984. Handbook of the snakes of India, Ceylon, Burma, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Annals of Zoology 22(B): i–xvi + 1–412.
Smith, M.A. 1938. The nucho-dorsal glands of snakes. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107B(4): 575–583. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1938.tb08532.x
Takeuchi, H., Savitzky, A.H., Ding, L., Silva, A. de, Das, I., Nguyen, T.T., Tsai, T.-S., Jono, T., Zhu, G.-X., Mahaulpatha, D., Tang, Y.-Z. & Mori, A. 2018. Evolution of nuchal glands, unusual defensive organs of Asian natricine snakes (Serpentes: Colubridae), inferred from a molecular phylogeny. Ecology and Evolution 8(20): 10219–10232. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4497 Open access. Reference page.

Additional references

Malnate, E.V. 1960. Systematic Division and Evolution of the Colubrid Snake Genus Natrix, with Comments on the Subfamily Natricinae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 112: 41–71. JSTOR Hybrid open access journal Reference page.
Doria, G., Petri, M., Bellati, A., Tiso, M. & Pistarino, E. 2013. Rhabdophis in the Museum of Genova with description and molecular analysis of a new species from Sumatra (Reptilia, Serpentes, Colubridae, Natricinae). Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale "Giacomo Doria" 105: 139–153. Reference page.
Zhu, G.-X., Wang, Y.-Y., Takeuchi, H. & Zhao, E.-M. 2014. A new species of the genus Rhabdophis Fitzinger, 1843 (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China. Zootaxa 3765(5): 469–480. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3765.5.5 Paywall Reference page.

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Das, A., Smith, E.N., Sidik, I., Sarker, G.C., Boruah, B., Patel, N.G., Murthy, B.H.C.K. & Deepak, V. 2021. Hidden in the plain sight: a new species of Rhabdophis (Serpentes: Natricinae) from the Rhabdophis himalayanus complex. Zootaxa 5020(3): 401–433. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5020.3.1 Paywall Reference page.
Liu, Q., Xie, X.-H., Wu, Y.-Y., Shu, G.-S., Guo, K., Guo, P. & Cui, L.-W. 2021. High genetic divergence but low morphological differences in a keelback snake Rhabdophis subminiatus (Reptilia, Colubridae). Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 59(6): 1371–1381. DOI: 10.1111/jzs.12484 Paywall Reference page.
David, P. & Vogel, G. 2021. Taxonomic composition of the Rhabdophis subminiatus (Schlegel, 1837) species complex (Reptilia: Natricidae) with the description of a new species from China. Taprobanica 10(2): 89–120. DOI: 10.47605/tapro.v10i2.257 Open access Reference page.

Links

Uetz, P. & Hallermann, J. 2023. Rhabdophis . The Reptile Database. Accessed on 29 November 2021.
Rhabdophis – Taxon details on Interim Register of Marine and Non-marine Genera (IRMNG).
Rhabdophis – Taxon details on Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Vernacular names
English: Asian Keelback Snakes

Rhabdophis is a genus of snakes in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. Species in the genus Rhabdophis are generally called keelback snakes, and are found primarily in Southeast Asia.
Toxicity

Rhabdophis is often thought of as completely harmless, but there are several cases of severe envenomation and at least one recorded fatality from the Japanese species.[1] The symptoms have been compared to those of highly venomous African colubrids such as the boomslang.[1] Similar reports exist for other species of the genus,[2] which also make reference to the highly hemorrhagic nature of the venom. There is a supposed antivenom in Japan, but not in other countries.[2]

While the term "poisonous snake" is often incorrectly used for a wide variety of venomous snakes, some species of Rhabdophis are in fact poisonous but not venomous. Keelback snakes have salivary glands that secrete poison they ingest from eating poisonous toads. While both venom and poison are toxins, a venom requires direct delivery, for instance subcutaneously through a snake bite, but can be ingested without harm. A poison can also be absorbed indirectly, e.g., by touch or through the digestive system,[3] or delivered by the fang of a poisonous snake.[4][5] Rhabdophis ingest poisonous toads and the poison is absorbed into their blood stream, but the snake is immune to it. The toad poison now accumulates in their salivary glands which is secreted when they bite. Therefore, they use toad poison as their venom. Although this is harmful to small rodents, they cannot harm humans as the concentration of poison secreted is very low.
Species

These species are recognized as being valid:[6]

Rhabdophis adleri Zhao, 1997
Rhabdophis akraios Doria, Petri, Bellati, Tiso & Pistarino, 2013 – Singalang keelback
Rhabdophis angeli (Bourret, 1934) – Angel's keelback
Rhabdophis auriculatus (Günther, 1858) – white-lined water snake
Rhabdophis barbouri (Taylor, 1922) – Barbour's water snake[7]
Rhabdophis bindi Das, E.N. Smith, Sidik, Sarker, Boruah, N.G. Patel, Murthy & Deepak, 2021 – Bindee keelback
Rhabdophis callichroma (Bourret, 1934) – Bavi keelback
Rhabdophis callistus (Günther, 1873) – Boettger's keelback
Rhabdophis ceylonensis (Günther, 1858) – Sri Lanka blossom krait, Sri Lanka keelback
Rhabdophis chiwen Z. Chen, Ding, Q. Chen & Piao, 2020 – Chiwen keelback
Rhabdophis chrysargoides (Günther, 1858) – Javanese keelback, Günther's keelback
Rhabdophis chrysargos (Schlegel, 1837) – specklebelly keelback
Rhabdophis confusus David & G. Vogel, 2021
Rhabdophis conspicillatus (Günther, 1872) – red-bellied keelback
Rhabdophis flaviceps (A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854) – orangeneck keelback, orange-lipped keelback, yellow-headed keelback
Rhabdophis guangdongensis Zhu, Wang, Takeuchi & Zhao, 2014 – Guangdong keelback
Rhabdophis helleri (Schmidt, 1925) – Heller’s red-necked keelback
Rhabdophis himalayanus (Günther, 1864) – orange-collared keelback
Rhabdophis leonardi (Wall, 1923) – Burmese keelback
Rhabdophis lineatus (W. Peters, 1861) – zigzag-lined water snake
Rhabdophis murudensis (M.A. Smith, 1925) – Muruden keelback, Gunung Murud keelback
Rhabdophis nigrocinctus (Blyth, 1856) – black-striped keelback
Rhabdophis nuchalis (Boulenger, 1891) – Hubei keelback
Rhabdophis pentasupralabialis Jiang & Zhao, 1983
Rhabdophis plumbicolor (Cantor, 1839) – green keelback, lead keelback
Rhabdophis rhodomelas (H. Boie, 1827) – blueneck keelback, blue-necked keelback
Rhabdophis siamensis (Mell, 1931)
Rhabdophis subminiatus (Schlegel, 1837) – red-necked keelback
Rhabdophis swinhonis (Günther, 1868) – Swinhoe's grass snake[7]
Rhabdophis tigrinus (H. Boie, 1826) – tiger grooved-neck keelback, tiger keelback, Japanese grass snake, yamakagashi

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

Mittleman, M. B.; Goris, R. C. (27 February 1978). "Death Caused by the Bite of the Japanese Colubrid Snake Rhabdophis tigrinus (Boie) (Reptilia, Serpentes, Colubridae)". Journal of Herpetology. JSTOR. 12 (1): 109–111. doi:10.2307/1563518. ISSN 0022-1511. JSTOR 1563518.
Nelwan, Erni Juwita, et al. (2016)."Severe coagulopathy and transient hypertension following a Rhabdophis subminiatus bite: a case report". Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical [online]. 49 (4): 520–522. [Accessed 16 November 2021]. Available from: <https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0314-2015>. ISSN 1678-9849. https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0314-2015.
Oldfield, Molly; Mitchinson, John (10 September 2010). "QI: Quite Interesting facts about deadly poisons". The Telegraph.
Zotz, R. B.; Mebs, D.; Hirche, H.; Paar, D. (1 January 1991). "Hemostatic changes due to the venom gland extract of the red-necked keelback snake (Rhabdophis subminiatus)". Toxicon. 29 (12): 1501–1508. doi:10.1016/0041-0101(91)90006-D. PMID 1801326.
Ferlan, I.; Ferlan, A.; King, T.; Russell, F. E. (1 January 1983). "Preliminary studies on the venom of the colubrid snake Rhabdophis subminatus [sic] (red-necked keelback)". Toxicon. 21 (4): 570–574. doi:10.1016/0041-0101(83)90137-X. PMID 6623495.
Genus Rhabdophis at The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

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. (Rhabdophis barbouri, p. 16; R. swinhonis, p. 258).

[1]
External links

Animal Diversity Web list of species of Rhabdophis
Omne vivum list of species