235 Generic afnities of African house snakes revised: a new genus for Boodon erlangeri Open access at htps://www.salamandra-journal.com © 2022 Deutsche Gesellschaf für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde e.V. (DGHT), Germany 30 October 2022         ISSN 0036–3375 SALAMANDRA 58(4): 235–262 SALAMANDRA German Journal of Herpetology Generic afnities of African house snakes revised: a new genus for Boodon erlangeri (Serpentes: Elapoidea: Lamprophiidae: Lamprophiinae) Arthur Tiutenko 1 , Claudia Koch 2 , Maciej Pabijan 3 & Oleksandr Zinenko 4 1) Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schlossplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen, Germany 2) Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany 3) Department of Comparative Anatomy, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, 30-387 Krakow, Poland 4) V. N. Karazin National University, 4 Svobody sq., 61022 Kharkiv, Ukraine Corresponding author: Arthur Tiutenko, e-mail: arthur.tiutenko@fau.de Manuscript received: 23 June 2022 Accepted: 13 August 2022 by Philipp Wagner Abstract. Lamprophis erlangeri is a lamprophiid snake endemic to moist montane forest remnants and formerly forested areas in the south and south-west of the Ethiopian highlands. Its vernacular name ‘Ethiopian House Snake’ is a result of century-long speculations about the generic placement of this species. New molecular and morphological data brought evidence that it has been misplaced in both genera of ‘African house snakes’, Lamprophis and Boaedon. A new genus is de- scribed to accommodate L. erlangeri. It represents a sister clade to the Western and Central African genera Bothrophthal- mus and Bothrolycus from which it difers by general body form and proportions, head shape, number of preocular scales, absence of loreal pits, maxillary dentition as well as by a number of cranial features. Te type locality of the type species of the new genus, originally ‘Somaliland’, is restricted in this paper to Abera in Ethiopia. Lamprophis abyssinicus, the second Ethiopian endemic in this genus is assigned again to the genus Pseudoboodon on a basis of similar external morphology and cranial osteology. In the course of this revision of systematic afnities in Lamprophis and Boaedon, also the status of the genus Alopecion, considered to represent a junior synonym of these genera, is revalidated. It is reinstated as a valid monotypic genus, to include L. guttatus, a South-African species with similarly turbulent taxonomic history as of L. er- langeri. Cranial osteology of L. erlangeri, L. abyssinicus, and L. guttatus is analysed for the frst time. Morphological, eco- logical and behavioural characters of the related genera Alopecion, Boaedon, Bothrolycus, Bothrophthalmus, Lamprophis, Lycodonomorphus, Pseudoboodon, and of the new genus are reviewed and compared. Key words. Alopecion annulifer, Boaedon abyssinicus, Boaedon erlangeri, Boaedon guttatus, Boaedontini, cranial osteology, Lamprophis abyssinicus, Lamprophis guttatus, molecular genetics, morphology, osteology, Pseudoboodon, skull, Squamata, systematics, taxonomy. Introduction Te ‘Ethiopian House Snake’, Lamprophis erlangeri (Stern- feld, 1908) is a lamprophiid snake species endemic to moist montane forest remnants and formerly forested ar- eas in the south and south-west of the Ethiopian highlands. Tis snake occurs neither in houses nor in settlements, and its vernacular name is a result of century-long speculations about its systematic afnities, when it was moved back and forth between two African ‘house snake’ genera. Lampro- phis Fitzinger, 1843 and Boaedon Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854. Tis species is uncommon and remains poorly studied; it is rare in museum collections, and few herpetologists have ever had a chance to see L. erlangeri in the wild. No new specimens were collected in the past 30 years, and no new information about this snake was pub- lished till now, since its rediscovery in 1992 (Nečas et al. 1993). Sternfeld (1908) described this species as 'Boodon Er- langeri' from a specimen donated by Erlanger and Neu- mann, having assigned it, without any explanation, to the genus Boaedon (at that time spelt ‘Boodon’, afer an emen- dation by Günther 1858). Broadley (1983) synonymised Boaedon with Lamprophis when he recognised that the characters originally used for distinguishing these genera were invalid. Tis decision was followed by Auerbach (1987) and authors of various other books and journal ar- ticles who treated Boaedon either as a junior synonym of Lamprophis or as a separate genus, and moved some or all species, including L. erlangeri, from one genus to another