Colubridae - 2003 Publications

Boiga  - Description of Boiga bengkuluensis

Orlov et al. (2003) describe a new species of Boiga from Bengkulu Province, SW. Sumatra: B. bengkuluensis. The new species is a long and very slender species, and greenish-brown with bifurcating, darker green crossbars on the back. It differs from B. cynodon and relatives in having fewer midbody scale rows (19 instead of 21 or more), and from B. drapiezii in having more temporal scales (3 anterior and 4 posterior, instead of 2 and 3, respectively).


Clelia hussami

Morato et al. (2003) describe a new species of mussurana from southern Brazil: Clelia hussami. The enw species can be distinguished from other memebrs of the genus by a combination of 19 dorsal scale rows, 56 or fewer subcaudals, a dark middorsal line that is no more than three scale rows wide, and immaculate supralalabials and ventrals. The species was previously included in the taxon Clelia rustica. All known specimens are from a narrow area of  (former) Araucaria forest in southern-central Paraná and northern central Santa Catarina states, Brazil.

Trimorphodon - American lyre snakes

LaDuc & Johnson (2003) used univariate and multivariate morphometrical analyses to determine the relationships between the Texas lyre snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus vilkinsonii and the Sonora lyre snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda). Their analyses revealed the two taxa to be highly distinct, and supposedly intermediate specimens to be assignable to T.b. lambda. Consequently, the authors considered the texas lyre snake to represent a separate species, Trimorphodon vilkinsonii.
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