Dendrelaphis

Genus of snakes

Dendrelaphis

Dendrelaphis punctulatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Reptilia
Order:  | Squamata
Suborder:  | Serpentes
Family:  | Colubridae
Subfamily:  | Ahaetuliinae
Genus:  | Dendrelaphis
Boulenger, 1890
Species

>40 recognized species, see article.

Synonyms

Dendrophis

Dendrelaphis is a genus of colubrid snakes, distributed from Pakistan, India and southern China to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There are over forty described species. Asian species are known commonly as bronzebacks, while the Australo-Papuan species are simply called treesnakes. All are non-venomous and entirely harmless to humans.

## Contents

* 1 Classification
* 2 Description
* 3 Diet
* 4 References
* 5 Further reading
* 6 External links

## Classification[edit]

This list is based on the latest checklist of the snakes of the world[1] and recent revisions and descriptions published in the scientific literature.

The authors of a 2015 revision of the Australo-Papuan Dendrelaphis species recommended the synonymy of D. solomonis within D. calligaster, the elevation of D. keiensis to species status, the resurrection of D. lineolatus from within D. calligaster, and the resurrection of D. macrops and elevation of D. striolatus from within D. punctulatus. They also confined D. punctulatus to Australia and D. papuensis to the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea.[2]

* Dendrelaphis andamanensis (Anderson, 1871) – Andaman bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis ashoki G. Vogel & van Rooijen, 2011 – Ashok's bronzeback[3]
* Dendrelaphis bifrenalis (Boulenger, 1890), Boulenger's bronzeback – southern India and Sri Lanka[4]
* Dendrelaphis biloreatus (Wall, 1908) – Gore's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis calligaster (Günther, 1867) – northern treesnake, green treesnake, coconut treesnake
* Dendrelaphis caudolineatus (Gray, 1834) – striped bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis caudolineolatus (Günther, 1869)
* Dendrelaphis chairecacos (F. Boie, 1827) – Karnataka bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis cyanochloris (Wall, 1921) – blue bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis flavescens Gaulke, 1994 – Sulu bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis formosus (F. Boie, 1827) – elegant bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis fuliginosus (Griffin, 1909) – Negros bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis gastrostictus (Boulenger, 1894) – spot-bellied treesnake, montane treesnake
* Dendrelaphis girii G. Vogel & van Rooijen, 2011 – Giri's bronzeback[3]
* Dendrelaphis grandoculis (Boulenger, 1890) – southern bronzeback[4]
* Dendrelaphis grismeri G. Vogel & van Rooijen, 2008 – Grismer's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis haasi van Rooijen & G. Vogel, 2008 – Haas's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis hollinrakei Lazell, 2002 – Shek Kwu Chau island tree snake[5]
* Dendrelaphis humayuni Tiwari & Biswas, 1973 – Nicobar bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis keiensis (Mertens, 1926) – Kei Islands bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis kopsteini G. Vogel & van Rooijen, 2012 – Kopstein's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis inornatus (Boulenger, 1897) – Lesser Sunda bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis levitoni van Rooijen & G. Vogel, 2008 – Palawan bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis lineolatus (Jacquinot & Guichenot, 1853)
* Dendrelaphis lorentzii (van Lidth de Jeude, 1911) – Lorentz River treesnake
* Dendrelaphis luzonensis Leviton, 1961 – Luzon bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis macrops (Günther, 1877) – big-eyed treesnake
* Dendrelaphis marenae G. Vogel & van Rooijen, 2008 – Maren Gaulke's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis modestus (Boulenger, 1894) – Moluccan bronzeback, grey bronzeback, striped bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis ngansonensis (Bourret, 1835) – Ngan Son bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis nigroserratus G. Vogel, van Rooijen & Hauser, 2012 – sawtooth-necked bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis oliveri (Taylor, 1950) – Oliver's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis papuensis (Boulenger, 1895) – Trobriand Islands treesnake
* Dendrelaphis philippiensis (Günther, 1879) – Philippine bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis pictus (Gmelin, 1789) – painted bronzeback, common bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis punctulatus (Gray, 1827) – common treesnake, Australian treesnake
* Dendrelaphis schokari (Kuhl, 1820) – Schokar's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis sinharajensis Wickramasinghe, 2016 – Sinharaja tree snake
* Dendrelaphis striatus (Cohn, 1905) – striped bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis striolatus (W. Peters, 1867) – Palau treesnake
* Dendrelaphis subocularis (Boulenger, 1888) – mountain bronzeback, Burmese bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis terrificus (W. Peters, 1872) – Sulawesi bronzeback, terrific bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin, 1803) – common bronzeback, Daudin's bronzebackack
* Dendrelaphis underwoodi van Rooijen & G. Vogel, 2008 – Underwood's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis vogeli Jiang, Guo, Ren & Li, 2020 – Vogel's bronzeback
* Dendrelaphis walli G. Vogel & van Rooijen, 2011 – Wall's bronzeback native to Myanmar[6]
* Dendrelaphis wickrorum Danushka et al., 2020 – Wickramasinghes’ bronzeback

## Description[edit]

Bronzebacks range in total length (including tail) from 2 feet (0.61 m) to up to 6 feet (1.8 m). All species have a slender body with a long tail. Males are shorter in length and brighter in coloration; they also tend to be more active. Females are stouter with duller or darker colorations and are less active. Typical coloration includes red, brown or orange on the head with bronze, brown or olive-green running down the length of the back. The underside of the body is usually bright to pale green or yellow. They have big eyes and bright red tongues. The tail is fully prehensile.

## Diet[edit]

The primary prey of Dendrelaphis species consists of lizards and frogs, but the larger species are capable of taking birds, bats, and small rodents.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Wallach, V.; Williams, K. L.; Boundy, J. (2014). Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4822-0847-4.
2. ^ van Rooijen, J.; Vogel, G.; Somaweera, R. (2015). "A revised taxonomy of the Australo-Papuan species of the colubrid genus Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae)". Salamandra. 51 (1): 33–56.
3. ^ a b Vogel, G.; Van Rooijen, J. (2011). "Contributions to a review of the Dendrelaphis pictus (Gmelin, 1789) complex (Serpentes: Colubridae) – 3. The Indian forms, with the description of a new species from the Western Ghats". Journal of Herpetology. 45 (1): 100–110. doi:10.1670/09-035.1. S2CID 85867473.
4. ^ a b Boulenger, G. A. (1890). "Genus Dendrophis". Reptilia and Batrachia: The Fauna of British India Including Ceylon and Burma. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 337–339.
5. ^ Lazell, J. D. (2002). "The herpetofauna of Shek Kwu Chau, South Chinese Sea, with descriptions of two new colubrid snakes". Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society. 25: 1–82.
6. ^ Vogel, G.; Van Rooijen, J. (2011). "Description of a new species of the genus Dendrelaphis Boulenger, 1890 from Myanmar (Squamata: Serpentes: Colubridae)". Bonn Zoological Bulletin. 60 (1): 17–24.

## Further reading[edit]

* Boulenger GA (1894). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xi + 382 pp. + Plates I-XX. (Genus Dendrelaphis, p. 87, Figure 7).
* Gow GF (1983). Snakes of Australia, Completely Revised Edition. HarperCollins Australia. 128 pp. ISBN 0-207-14437-0.
* Wall F (1921). Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon. Colombo, Ceylon [Sri Lanka]: Colombo Museum. (H.R. Cottle, Government Printer). xxii + 581 pp. (Genus Dendrelaphis, pp. 220–221).

## External links[edit]

* Genus Dendrelaphis at The Reptile Database
* Video of Dendrelaphis kopsteini in Malaysia

Taxon identifiers|

* Wikidata: Q179711
* Wikispecies: Dendrelaphis
* ADW: Dendrelaphis
* AFD: Dendrelaphis
* CoL: 42X6
* EoL: 18030
* GBIF: 2459261
* iNaturalist: 26637
* IRMNG: 1201182
* ITIS: 174221
* NCBI: 46296

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