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Hormonotus modestus (Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854) Figure 29A Lamprophis modestus Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854: 429. Type locality: “côte de Guinée ”. Restricted to Dabocrom, Ghana fide Hughes & Barry (1969). Hormonotus audax Hallowell, 1857: 56. Type locality: “Gaboon, west coast of Africa”. Heterolepis glaber Jan, 1863: 98. Type locality: “ Costa d’oro … Boutry, Africa occid.”. Boodon vossii Fischer, 1888: 3. Type locality: “ Kamerun ”. Hormonotus modestus (Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854): Boulenger 1893: 343. Distribution. This species extends from Guinea in West Africa to Uganda in East Africa. In Equatorial Guinea it has been recorded in Bioko (Boulenger 1893) at Natividad (Hacienda Natividad) (Bocage 1895 a, 1903; Mertens 1964a) and in Río Muni at Monte Mitra within Monte Alén National Park (Gonwouo & Nsang 2005) (Map 33A). Comments. Hormonotus is a monotypic genus with not well-known phylogenetic affinities (Zaher et al. 2019). Specimens examined. Five specimens. Río Muni: Miboman, 30 km from Bata, 14 October 1985 (EBD 20932); San Joaquín de Ndyiacom (road from Bata to Ayamiken), February 1987 (EBD 24956 –24957); San Joaquín de Ndyiacom, 01 August 1986 (EBD 24955); Aconibe, 07 July 1987 (EBD 27512)., Published as part of Sánchez-Vialas, Alberto, Calvo-Revuelta, Marta & Riva, Ignacio De La, 2022, Synopsis of the terrestrial Reptiles of Equatorial Guinea, pp. 1-197 in Zootaxa 5202 (1) on page 113, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5202.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7285600, {"references":["Dumeril, A. M. C., Bibron, G. & Dumeril, A. H. A. (1854) Erpetologie Generale ou Histoire Naturelle Complete des Reptiles. Vol. 7. Premiere Partie & Deuxieme Partie. Librairie Encyclopedique de Roret, Paris, xi + xvi + 780 pp. & xii + 756 pp. (numbered 781 - 1536). https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 118797","Hughes, B. & Barry, D. H. (1969) The snakes of Ghana, a checklist and key. Bulletin de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, 31 (3), 1004 - 1041.","Hallowell, E. (1857) Notice of a collection of reptiles from the Gaboon country, West Africa, recently presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, by Dr. Henry A. Ford. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 9 (3), 48 - 72.","Jan, G. (1863) Elenco Sistematico degli Ofidi Descritti e Disegnati per l'Iconografia Generale. A. Lombardi, Milano, vii + 143 pp. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 106683","Fischer, J. G. (1888) Uber zwei neue Schlangen und einen neuen Laubfrosch von Kamerun. Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Wissenschaftlichen Anstalten, 5, 1 - 10.","Boulenger, G. A. (1893) Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1. Trustees, London, xiii + 448 pp., 28 pls.","Bocage, J. V. B. (1895 a) Subsidios para a fauna da Ilha de Fernao do Po. Jornal de Sciencias Mathematicas, Physicas e Naturaes, Segunda Serie, 4 (13), 1 - 15.","Boulenger, G. A. (1903) Descriptions of new snakes in the collection of the British Museum. Annals & Magazine of Natural History, Series 7, 12 (69), 350 - 354. https: // doi. org / 10.1080 / 00222930308678866","Mertens, R. (1964 a) Die Reptilien von Fernando Poo. Bonner zoologische Beitrage, 15, 211 - 238.","Gonwouo, N. L. & Nsang, A. (2005) An assessment of the reptiles and amphibians of the Monte Mitra forest, Monte Alen National Park. In: Sunderland, T. C. H. (Ed.), A Biodiversity Assessment of the Monte Mitra Forest, Monte Alen National Park, Equatorial Guinea. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., pp. 32 - 49.","Zaher, H., Murphy, R. W., Arredondo, J. C., Graboski, R., Machado-Filho, P. R., Mahlow, K., Montingelli, G. G., Quadros, A. B., Orlov, N. L., Wilkinson, M., Zhang, Y. P. & Grazziotin, F. G. (2019) Large-scale molecular phylogeny, morphology, divergence-time estimation, and the fossil record of advanced caenophidian snakes (Squamata: Serpentes). PLoS ONE, 14 (5), e 0216148. https: // doi. org / 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0216148"]}

The snake family Lamprophiidae Fitzinger (Serpentes: Elapoidea) is a putatively Late Eocene radiation of nocturnal snakes endemic to the African continent. It incorporates many of the most characteristic and prolific of Africa’s non-venomous snake species, including the widespread type genus Lamprophis Fitzinger, 1843 (house snakes). We used approximately 2500 bases of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data from 28 (41%) of the approximately 68 recognised lamprophiid species in nine of the eleven genera to investigate phylogenetic structure in the family and to inform taxonomy at the generic level. Cytochrome b, ND4 and tRNA gene sequences (mitochondrial) and c-mos sequences (nuclear) were analysed using Maximum Likelihood, Bayesian Inference and Maximum Parsimony methods. The genus Mehelya Csiki, 1903 was paraphyletic with respect to Gonionotophis Boulenger, 1893. To address this, the concept of Gonionotophis is expanded to include all current Mehelya species. The genus Lamprophis emerged polyphyletic: the enigmatic Lamprophis swazicus was sister to Hormonotus modestus from West Africa, and not closely related to its nominal congeners. It is moved to a new monotypic genus (Inyoka gen. nov.). The remaining Lamprophis species occur in three early-diverging lineages. (1) Lamprophis virgatus and the widely distributed Lamprophis fuliginosus species complex (which also includes Lamprophis lineatus and Lamprophis olivaceus) formed a clade for which the generic name Boaedon Dumeril, Bibron & Dumeril, 1854 is resurrected. (2) The water snakes (Lycodonomorphus) were nested within Lamprophis (sensu lato), sister to Lamprophis inornatus. We transfer this species to the genus Lycodonomorphus Fitzinger, 1843. (3) We restrict Lamprophis (sensu strictissimo) to a small clade of four species endemic to southern Africa: the type species of Lamprophis Fitzinger, 1843 (Lamprophis aurora) plus Lamprophis fiskii, Lamprophis fuscus and Lamprophis guttatus.

Hormonotus modestus (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 2 specimens (ZMB 11241, " Togo " without precise locality; MNHN 2006.2197, Sodo Zion). MORPHOLOGY. — TL 502 mm and 665 mm; 15 MSR smooth and oblique, vertebral row enlarged; 228-245 Ven; 86 Sc, paired; anal single; 9 supralabials; 9 infralabials; 1 preocular; 3 postoculars; temporal scale formula 1 + 2. DISTRIBUTION. — This burrowing species occurs in the forested area of Togo. Previously, Matschie (1893), Sternfeld (1909: 13) and Chippaux (2006) had already recorded its occurrence in the country. Specimens mentioned by Sternfeld (1908b, 1909: 13) were collected at Bismarkburg, now Adele. Lamprophis fuliginosus (Boie, 1827) (Fig. 5) MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 57 specimens (MRAC 29476, MRAC 29478, GHS-W 0528, Payo; MRAC 29503, Niamtougou; MRAC 29553, Tomegbe; MRAC 29560, MRAC 29573, T 130, T 134, Fazao; MRAC 29582, MRAC 29586, Kolokope; MRAC 29609, MRAC 29615-16, MRAC 29619, Togoville; MRAC 29596, MRAC 29600, Tetetou; MRAC 29706, Ezime; MRAC 73014.0028, Agou; GHS-W 0032, GHS-Togo 73, T 225, Agave; GHS-W 1286, T 147, T 152, T 154, Diguingue; GHS-Togo 13, Sodo; MRAC A7036.0002, MRAC A7036.0011 - 0012, GHS-W 0024, GHS-W 1018-19, GHS-W 1033, GHS-W 1063, GHS-W 1066, GHS-W 1072-3, GHS-W 1076, GHS-W 1097-8, GHS-W 1203, GHS-W 1206-7, GHS-W 1412, GHS-W 1414, GHS-W 1424-5, GHS-W 1430, GHS-W 1433, GHS-W 1437, GHS-Togo 27, and GHS-Togo 41, Sodo Zion; GHS-W 1235, GHS-W 1288, Yo [Agome Yo], T 214, Huilehui; T 233, Bafilo). MORPHOLOGY. — TL from 310 to 935 mm; 28-31 MSR, smooth; 202-248 Ven, smooth; 44-68 Sc; anal single; 8-9 supralabials; 8-10 infralabials; 1 preocular; 2 postoculars; temporal scale formula 1 + 2 + 3. DISTRIBUTION. — This species is very common and present in all ecological regions of the country. It occurs in all ecosystems: savannahs, forest, in urbanized areas, and so on. Additional specimens were collected in Aledjo, Fazao and Huilehui. The species had been recorded from Togo by Matschie (1893), Sternfeld (1908b, 1909: 11), from Missahohe, Kete (Kete-Kratchi currently in Ghana), Hulselmans & Verheyen (1970), Hulselmans et al. (1970), and Roman (1984). Publications of Trape & Mané (2004, 2006b) and Chippaux (2006) mentioned the presence of this species throughout Western and Central Africa. However, Chirio & Ineich (2006) stated that this nominal taxon is a complex of two species which is in need of a taxonomical revision. CONSERVATION STATUS. — According to reports of the CITES Division of the DFC Togo, 30 specimens were exported from Togo in 2005. REMARKS The genus is currently under revision by the senior author of this paper; the results will be presented elsewhere. Nevertheless, in Togo and West Africa, the characters of both Lamprophis fuliginosus and Lamprophis lineatus are quite constant. Both species can be easily separated by the condition of the contact between the upper part of the preocular and the frontal. In all (57) examined specimens of L. fuliginosus from throughout West Africa, the preocular is in broad contact with the frontal, whereas these scales are separated in all (12) examined specimens of L. lineatus. On the basis of new characters, it appears that there are more than one species under the name L. lineatus, especially in Central Africa., Published as part of Segniagbeto, Gabriel Hoinsoude, Trape, Jean François, David, Patrick, Ohler, Annemarie, Dubois, Alain & Glitho, Isabelle Adolé, 2011, The snake fauna of Togo: systematics, distribution and biogeography, with remarks on selected taxonomic problems, pp. 325-360 in Zoosystema 33 (3) on pages 341-342, DOI: 10.5252/z2011n3a4, http://zenodo.org/record/4547017, {"references":["MATSCHIE P. 1893. - Die Reptilien und Amphibien Togogebietes. Mittheilungen von Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, mit Benutzung amtlicher Quellen 6: 207 - 215.","STERNFELD L. 1909. - Die Schlangen Togos, in Die Fauna der deutschen Kolonien 1 (1): iv + 29 p., map.","CHIPPAUX J. - P. 2006. - Les serpents d'Afrique Occidentale et Centrale. Collection Faune et Flore tropicales, Paris, IRD Editions 35: 311 p.","STERNFELD L. 1908 b. - Die Schlangenfauna Togos. Mittheilungen Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 4: 207 - 236.","HULSELMANS J. L. J. & VERHEYEN W. N. 1970. - Contribution a l'herpetologie de la Republique du Togo: Liste preliminaire des serpents recoltes par la deuxieme mission zoologique belge au Togo. Revue de Zoologie et de Botanique africaines 82 (1 - 2): 200 - 204.","ROMAN B. 1984. - Serpents des Pays de l'Entente. C. N. R. S. T., Ouagadougou, 45 p.","TRAPE J. - F. & MANE Y. 2004. - Les serpents des environs de Bandafassi (Senegal oriental). Bulletin de la Societe herpetologique de France 109: 5 - 34.","TRAPE J. - F. & MANE Y. 2006 b. - Guide des serpents d'Afrique occidentale (savane et desert). IRD Editions, Paris, 226 p.","CHIRIO L. & INEICH I. 2006. - Biogeography of the reptiles of the Central African Republic. African Journal of Herpetology 55 (1): 23 - 59."]}

The Elapoidea includes the Elapidae and a large (~60 genera, 280 sp.) and mostly African (including Madagascar) radiation termed Lamprophiidae by Vidal et al. (2007), that includes at least four major groups: the psammophiines, atractaspidines, lamprophiines and pseudoxyrhophiines. In this work, we reviewed the recent taxonomic history of the lamprophiids, and built a data set including two nuclear protein-coding genes (c-mos and RAG2), two mitochondrial rRNA genes (12S and 16S rRNA) and two mitochondrial protein-coding genes (cytochrome b and ND4) for 85 species belonging to 45 genera (thus representing about 75% of the generic diversity and 30% of the specific diversity of the radiation), in order to clarify the phylogenetic relationships of this large and neglected group at the subfamilial and generic levels. To this aim, 480 new sequences were produced. The vast majority of the investigated genera fall into four main monophyletic clusters, that correspond to the four subfamilies mentioned above, although the content of atractaspidines, lamprophiines and pseudoxyrhophiines is revised. We confirm the polyphyly of the genus Stenophis, and the relegation of the genus name Dromophis to the synonymy of the genus name Psammophis. Gonionotophis brussauxi is nested within Mehelya. The genus Lamprophis Fitzinger, 1843 is paraphyletic with respect to Lycodonomorphus Fitzinger, 1843. Lamprophis swazicus is the sister-group to Hormonotus modestus, and may warrant generic recognition. Molecular data do not support the traditional placement of Micrelaps within the Atractaspidinae, but its phylogenetic position, along with that of Oxyrhabdium (previously considered to belong to the Xenodermatidae), requires additional molecular data and they are both treated as Elapoidea incertae sedis. The interrelationships of Psammophiinae, Atractaspidinae, Lamprophiinae, Pseudoxyrhophiinae, Prosymna (13 sp.), Pseudaspis (1 sp.) and Pythonodipsas (1 sp.), Buhoma (2 species), and Psammodynastes (1 sp.) remain unresolved. Finally, the genus Lycognathophis, endemic to the Seychelles, does not belong to the African radiation, but to the Natricidae.