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.

Species

The following ten species are recognized as being valid.¹

Elapsoidea boulengeri Boettger, 1895 – Boulenger's garter snake² – Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Elapsoidea broadleyi Jakobsen, 1997 – Broadley's garter snake² – Somalia
Elapsoidea chelazziorum Lanza, 1979 – Somali garter snake – Somalia
Elapsoidea guentherii Bocage, 1866 – Günther's garter snake² – Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Elapsoidea laticincta (F. Werner, 1919) – Werner's garter snake² – Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda
Elapsoidea loveridgei Parker, 1949 – Loveridge's garter snake² – 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 snake² – 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

Genus Elapsoidea at The Reptile Database
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).