Hebius

Hebius
Japanese keelback (Hebius vibakari)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Subfamily:	Natricinae
Genus:	Hebius Thompson, 1913

Hebius is a genus of snakes in the family Colubridae. ^[1]

Geographic range

The genus Hebius is endemic to Asia. ^[2]

Taxonomy

All of the member species of the genus Hebius were formerly placed in the genus Amphiesma , but in 2014 Guo et al. placed most species of Amphiesma in the genus Hebius. They placed other species in the genus Herpetoreas , leaving Amphiesma a monotypic taxon containing only the species Amphiesma stolatum . ^[2]

Species

The following 53 species are recognized as being valid. ^[1]

• Hebius andreae (Ziegler & Quyet, 2006) – Andrea’s keelback
• Hebius annamensis Bourret, 1934 – Annam keelback
• Hebius arquus (David & G. Vogel, 2010)
• Hebius atemporalis (Bourret, 1934) – Tonkin keelback
• Hebius bitaeniatus (Wall, 1925) – Kutkai keelback
• Hebius boulengeri (Gressitt, 1937) – Tai-yong keelback, Boulenger’s keelback
• Hebius celebicus (W. Peters & Doria, 1878) – Sulawesi keelback
• Hebius chapaensis Bourret, 1934 – Vietnam water snake
• Hebius clerki (Wall, 1925) – Yunnan keelback
• Hebius concelarus (Malnate, 1963)
• Hebius craspedogaster (Boulenger, 1899) – Kuatun keelback
• Hebius deschauenseei (Taylor, 1934) – northern keelback, Deschauensee’s keelback
• Hebius flavifrons (Boulenger, 1887) – Sabah keelback
• Hebius frenatus (Dunn, 1923) – bridled keelback
• Hebius groundwateri (M.A. Smith, 1922) – Groundwater's keelback
• Hebius igneus David, G. Vogel, T.Q. Nguyen, Orlov, Pauwels, Teynié & Ziegler, 2021
• Hebius inas (Laidlaw, 1901) – Malayan mountain keelback
• Hebius ishigakiensis (Malnate & Munsterman, 1960) – Yaeyama keelback
• Hebius johannis (Boulenger, 1908) – Johann's keelback
• Hebius kerinciensis (David & Das, 2003)
• Hebius khasiensis (Boulenger, 1890) – Khasi Hills keelback, Khasi keelback
• Hebius lacrima Purkayastha & David, 2019 – crying keelback
• Hebius leucomystax (David, Bain, T.Q. Nguyen, Orlov, G. Vogel, Thanh & Ziegler, 2007) – white-lipped keelback
• Hebius maximus Malnate,.1962 – western China keelback
• Hebius metusia (Inger, E. Zhao, Shaffer & G. Wu, 1990) – Wa Shan keelback
• Hebius miyajimae (Maki, 1931) – Maki's keelback
• Hebius modestus (Günther, 1875) – modest keelback
• Hebius nigriventer (Wall, 1925)
• Hebius octolineatus (Boulenger, 1904) – eight-lined keelback
• Hebius optatus (Hu & E. Zhao, 1966) – Mount Omei keelback
• Hebius parallelus (Boulenger, 1890) – Yunnan keelback
• Hebius petersii (Boulenger, 1893) – Peters's keelback
• Hebius popei (Schmidt, 1925) – Pope's keelback
• Hebius pryeri (Boulenger, 1887) – Pryer's keelback
• Hebius sanguineus (Smedley, 1931) – Cameron Highlands keelback
• Hebius sangzhiensis Zhou et al., 2019 ^[3] – Sangzhi keelback
• Hebius sarasinorum (Boulenger, 1896) – Sarasin’s keelback
• Hebius sarawacensis (Günther, 1872) – Sarawak keelback
• Hebius sauteri (Boulenger, 1909) – Kosempo keelback
• Hebius septemlineatus (Schmidt, 1925) – Tengchong keelback
• Hebius taronensis (M.A. Smith, 1940) – Kachin keelback
• Hebius terrakarenorum Hauser, Smits, & David, 2022
• Hebius venningi (Wall, 1910) – Chin Hills keelback
• Hebius vibakari (H. Boie, 1826) – Japanese keelback
• Hebius viperinus (Schenkel, 1901)
• Hebius weixiensis Hou, Yuan, Wei, G. Zhao, G. Liu, Y. Wu, Shen, Chen, Guo & Che, 2021 – Weixi keelback
• Hebius yanbianensis Q. Liu, Zhong, Wang, Y. Liu & Guo, 2018) – Yanbian keelback
• Hebius youjiangensis Yang, Xu, Wu, Gong, Huang & Huang, 2023
• Hebius citrinoventer Xu, Yang, Ouyang, Huang & Peng, 2024 – Yingjiang keelback
• Hebius jingdongensis Ma, Shi, Ayi & Jiang, 2023 – Jingdong keelback
• Hebius gilhodesi Bohra, Nguyen, Vogel, Lalremsanga, Biakzuala, Das, Warjri, Thongni, Poyarkov & Purkayastha, 2025 – Bhamo keelback
• Hebius shantianfangi Liu, Wang, Hou, Zhang, Wang, Zong, Zhou, Rao, David & Vogel, 2025 – Mengla keelback
• Hebius ngoclinhensis Le, Phan, T. L. Nguyen, Murphy, Lam, S. N. Nguyen & Che, 2026 – Ngoc Linh keelback

Nota bene : A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Hebius.

References

1. Genus Hebius at The Reptile Database.
2. Guo et al.
3. Zhou, Z.; Sun, Z.; Qi, S.; Lu, Y.; Lyu, Z.; Wang, Y.; Li, P.; Ma, J. (2019). "A new species of the genus Hebius (Squamata: Colubridae: Natricinae) from Hunan Province, China". Zootaxa. 4674 (1): 68–82. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4674.1.3. PMID   31716020. S2CID   204136072.

Further reading

• Guo, Peng; Zhu, Fei; Liu, Qin; Zhang, Liang; Li, Jian X.; Huang, Yu Y.; Pyron, R. Alexander (2014). "A taxonomic revision of the Asian keelback snakes, genus Amphiesma (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae), with description of a new species". Zootaxa3873 (4): 425–440.
• Thompson JC (1913). "Contributions to the Anatomy of the Ophidia". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London1913: 414–425. (Hebius, new genus, p. 424).