Chironius
Encyclopedia
Chironius is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

 colubrid
Colubrid
A colubrid is a member of the snake family Colubridae. This broad classification of snakes includes about two-thirds of all snake species on earth. The earliest species of the snake family date back to the Oligocene epoch. With 304 genera and 1,938 species, Colubridae is the largest snake family...

 snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

s, commonly called sipos (from the Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 word cipó for liana
Liana
A liana is any of various long-stemmed, woody vines that are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy to get access to well-lit areas of the forest. Lianas are especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous...

), savanes, or sometimes vine snakes.

Species

  • Chironius bicarinatus (Wied
    Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied
    Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied was a German explorer, ethnologist and naturalist....

    , 1820) - Two-headed sipo
  • Chironius carinatus
    Chironius carinatus
    Chironius carinatus, commonly known as the machete savane, is a very large, but slender colubrid snake. Although nonvenomous, this snake is well known for its aggressive behaviour.-Geographic range:...

    (Linnaeus, 1758) - machete savane
  • Chironius challenger Kok, 2010
  • Chironius exoletus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Linnaeus' sipo
  • Chironius flavolineatus (Boettger
    Oskar Boettger
    Oskar Boettger was a German zoologist who was a native of Frankfurt am Main. He was an uncle of the noted malacologist Caesar Rudolf Boettger ....

    , 1885) - Boettger's sipo
  • Chironius foveatus Bailey, 1955
  • Chironius fuscus (Linnaeus, 1758) - brown sipo
  • Chironius grandisquamis (Peters
    Wilhelm Peters
    Wilhelm Karl Hartwich Peters was a German naturalist and explorer.He was assistant to Johannes Peter Müller and later curator of the Berlin Zoological Museum. In September 1842 he travelled to Mozambique via Angola. He returned to Berlin with an enormous collection of natural history specimens...

    , 1869) - Ecuador sipo
  • Chironius laevicollis (Wied
    Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied
    Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied was a German explorer, ethnologist and naturalist....

    , 1824) - Brazilian sipo
  • Chironius laurenti Dixon
    James R. Dixon
    Dr. James Ray Dixon is Professor Emeritus and Curator Emeritus of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection at Texas A&M University. His main research focus has been the natural history of Texas amphibians and reptiles and he has authored numerous field guides and...

    , Wiest & Cei, 1993
  • Chironius monticola Roze
    Janis Roze
    Janis A. Roze, Ph.D., born in Latvia, is a herpetologist and Professor of Biology Emeritus of City College and Graduate School of the City University of New York. He was professionally associated with the American Museum of Natural History and the United Nations...

    , 1952 - mountain sipo
  • Chironius multiventris
    Chironius multiventris
    Chironius multiventris, commonly known as the long-tailed machete savane, is species of colubrid snake.-Description:The body is elongate, and strongly laterally compressed. The tail is long, as the common name implies. The dorsum is olive to light brown. There is a narrow whitish, black-edged,...

    Schmidt
    Karl Patterson Schmidt
    Karl Patterson Schmidt was an American herpetologist.-Biography:Schmidt was the son of George W. Schmidt and Margaret Patterson Schmidt. Schmidt's father was a German professor who, at the time of Schmidt's birth, was teaching in Lake Forest, Illinois. His family left the city in 1907 and settled...

     & Walker, 1943 - long-tailed machete savane
  • Chironius quadricarinatus (F. Boie
    Friedrich Boie
    Friedrich Boie was a German scientist and brother of Heinrich Boie. He was born at Meldorf in Holstein and died at Kiel....

    , 1827)
  • Chironius scurrulus
    Chironius scurrulus
    Chironius scurrulus, commonly known as the smooth machete savane, is a large slender colubrid snake. It is also known as Wagler's sipo.-References:...

    (Wagler
    Johann Georg Wagler
    Johann Georg Wagler was a German herpetologist.Wagler was assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, and became Director of the Zoological Museum at the University of Munich after Spix's death in 1826...

    , 1824) - smooth machete savane
  • Chironius septentrionalis Dixon
    James R. Dixon
    Dr. James Ray Dixon is Professor Emeritus and Curator Emeritus of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection at Texas A&M University. His main research focus has been the natural history of Texas amphibians and reptiles and he has authored numerous field guides and...

    , Wiest & Cei, 1993
  • Chironius vincenti (Boulenger
    George Albert Boulenger
    George Albert Boulenger FRS was a Belgian-British zoologist who identified over 2000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles and amphibians.-Life:...

    , 1891) - St. Vincent blacksnake

Conservation status

The St. Vincent Blacksnake, Chironius vincenti is listed as critically endangered
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 by the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...

 due to its extremely limited range on the Island of St. Vincent
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....

.
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