Lycodon
{{Short description|Genus of snakes}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Automatic taxobox | name = Lycodon
| image = Lycodon aulicus sal.jpg
| image_caption = Lycodon aulicus
| taxon = Lycodon
| authority = Fitzinger, 1826Fitzinger LI (1826). Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften. Nebst einer Verwandtschafts-tafel und einem Verzeichnisse der Reptilien-Sammlung des K.K. zoologischen Museums zu Wien. Vienna: J.G. Heubner, five unnumbered + 67 pp. + one plate. (Lycodon, new genus, p. 57). (in German and Latin).
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
See text.
| synonyms = Cercaspis, Coluber, Leptorhytaon, Ophites, Dryocalamus, Sphecodes, Tetragonosoma, TytleriaBoulenger GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), Volume I., Containing the Families ... Colubridæ Aglyphæ, part.. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I–XXVIII. (Genus Lycodon, p. 348, Figure 23).
}}
File:Lycodon subcinctus.jpg, Malayan banded wolfsnake, in Letefoho, East Timor]]
Lycodon is a genus of colubrid snakes, commonly known as wolf snakes.{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/ |title=Home |website=britannica.com}} The Neo-Latin name Lycodon is derived from the Greek words λύκος (lykos) meaning wolf and οδόν (odon) meaning tooth,Mish, Frederick C. (Editor in Chief) (2004). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 40a + 1,623 pp. {{ISBN|0-87779-809-5}}. ("lycopodium", p. 742; "odonate" p. 860). and refers to the fang-like anterior maxillary and mandibular teeth. They are nonvenomous, but many members of this genus strongly resemble the venomous kraits in appearance, an example of Emsleyan mimicry.
Fossil record
Fossils of Lycodon are known from the Early Pliocene of Henan.{{Cite journal |last=Shi |first=Jingsong |last2=Wang |first2=Yuan |last3=Messenger |first3=Kevin Robert |last4=Jiangzuo |first4=Qigao |last5=Chen |first5=Yu |last6=Jin |first6=Changzhu |date=2 January 2023 |title=Early Pliocene fossil snakes (Squamata, Colubroidea) with various teeth from the fissure deposit in Queshan, Henan, China |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2022.2161382 |journal=Historical Biology |language=en |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2022.2161382 |issn=0891-2963 |access-date=21 September 2024 |via=Taylor and Francis Online|url-access=subscription }}
Species
The genus Lycodon comprises 73 recognized species.{{cite web|url=http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/search?search=Lycodon&submit=Search|title=Lycodon |work=The Reptile Database|accessdate=11 June 2015|last=Uetz|first=Peter|author-link=species:Peter Uetz|last2=Hallermann|first2=Jakob|author2-link=species:Jakob Hallermann}}
- Lycodon albofuscus {{small|(A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854)}} – dark wolf snake
- Lycodon alcalai {{small|Ota & Ross, 1994}} – Alcala's wolf snake
- Lycodon anakradaya {{small|A.T. Nguyen, Duong, Wood & Grismer, 2022}}
- Lycodon anamallensis {{small|Günther, 1864}} – Colombo wolf snake
- Lycodon aulicus {{small|(Linnaeus, 1758)}} – Indian wolf snake, common wolf snake
- Lycodon banksi Luu et al., 2018 – Banks's wolf snake
- Lycodon bibonius {{small|Ota & Ross, 1994}} – Ota's wolf snake
- Lycodon bicolor {{small|(Nikolsky, 1903)}} – Mackinnon's wolf snake
- Lycodon butleri {{small|Boulenger, 1900}} – Butler's wolf snake
- Lycodon capucinus {{small|F. Boie, 1827}} – common wolf snake
- Lycodon cardamomensis {{small|Daltry & Wüster, 2002}}
- Lycodon carinatus {{small|(Kuhl, 1820)}} – Ceylon wolf snake
- Lycodon cathaya {{small|J. Wang, Qi, Lyu, Zeng & Y.-Y. Wang, 2020}} – Huaping wolf snake
- Lycodon cavernicolus {{small|Grismer et al., 2011}} – Gua Wang Burma wolf snake
- Lycodon chapaensis (Angel & Bourret, 1933) – Namdong wolf snake
- Lycodon chithrasekarai Wickramasinghe et al., 2020 – Chithrasekara's bridle snake
- Lycodon chrysoprateros {{small|Ota & Ross, 1994}} – Ross's wolf snake
- Lycodon davidi {{small|G. Vogel et al., 2012}} – David's wolf snake
- Lycodon davisonii {{small|(Blanford, 1878)}} – Blanford's bridal snake
- Lycodon deccanensis {{small|Ganesh, Deuti, Punith, Achyuthan, Mallik, Adhikari & G. Vogel, 2020}}
- Lycodon dumerili {{small|(Boulenger, 1893)}} – Duméril's wolf snake
- Lycodon effraenis {{small|Cantor, 1847}} – brown wolf snake
- Lycodon fasciatus {{small|(J. Anderson, 1879)}}
- Lycodon fasciolatus {{small|(Shaw, 1802)}} – banded wolf snake
- Lycodon fausti {{small|Gaulke, 2002}} – Faust's wolf snake
- Lycodon ferroni {{small|Lanza, 1999}} – Ferron's Asian wolf snake
- Lycodon flavicollis {{small|Mukherjee & Bhupathy, 2007}} – yellow-collared wolf snake
- Lycodon flavomaculatus {{small|Wall, 1907}} – yellow-spotted wolf snake
- Lycodon flavozonatus {{small|(Pope, 1928)}} – yellow-banded big tooth snake, yellow-spotted wolf snake, big-tooth snake
- Lycodon futsingensis {{small|(Pope, 1928)}}
- Lycodon gammiei {{small|(Blanford, 1878)}} – Gammie's wolf snake, Sikkim false wolf snake
- Lycodon gibsonae {{small|G. Vogel & David, 2019}} – Gibson's wolf snake
- Lycodon gongshan {{small|G. Vogel & Luo, 2011}} – Gongshan wolf snake
- Lycodon gracilis {{small|(Günther, 1864)}} – scarce bridal snake
- Lycodon hypsirhinoides {{small|(Theobald, 1868)}}
- Lycodon jara {{small|(Shaw, 1802)}} – twin-spotted wolf snake
- Lycodon kundui {{small|M.A. Smith, 1943}}
- Lycodon laoensis {{small|Günther, 1864}} – Laotian wolf snake
- Lycodon liuchengchaoi {{small|Zhang et al., 2011}}
- Lycodon meridionalis {{small|(Bourret, 1935)}}
- Lycodon muelleri {{small|A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854}} – Müller's wolf snake
- Lycodon multifasciatus {{small|(Maki, 1931)}}
- Lycodon multizonatus {{small|(Zhao & Y.-M. Jiang, 1981)}} – Luding wolf snake, Luding Kukri snake
- Lycodon namdongensis {{small|Luu, Ziegler, Ha, Le & Hoang, 2019}}{{Cite journal |last=Luu |first=Vinh Quang |last2=Ziegler |first2=Thomas |last3=Ha |first3=Nghia Van |last4=Le |first4=Minh Duc |last5=Hoang |first5=Tuoi Thi |date=2019-04-17 |title=A new species of Lycodon Boie, 1826 (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332462303 |journal=Zootaxa |volume=4586 |issue=2 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4586.2.3 |issn=1175-5334}}
- Lycodon nympha {{small|(Daudin, 1803)}} – Vellore bridal snake
- Lycodon obvelatus {{small|K. Wang, Yu, G. Vogel & Che, 2020}} – recluse wolf snake
- Lycodon ophiophagus {{small|G. Vogel et al., 2009}} – snake-eater wolf snake
- Lycodon orientalis {{small|(Hilgendorf, 1880)}} – Oriental odd-tooth snake
- Lycodon paucifasciatus {{small|Rendahl in M.A. Smith, 1943}} – Rendahl's wolf snake
- Lycodon philippinus {{small|Griffin, 1909}} – Philippine dryocalamus
- Lycodon pictus {{small|Janssen, Pham, Ngo, Le, T.Q. Nguyen & Ziegler, 2019}}
- Lycodon rosozonatus {{small|(Hu & Zhao, 1972)}} – rose big-tooth snake
- Lycodon rufozonatus {{small|Cantor, 1842}} – red-banded snake
- Lycodon ruhstrati {{small|(Fischer, 1886)}} – mountain wolf snake, Formosa wolf snake
- Lycodon sealei {{small|Leviton, 1955}} – Seale's banded Asian wolf snake
- Lycodon semicarinatus {{small|(Cope, 1860)}} – Loo-Choo big-tooth snake, Ryukyu odd-tooth snake
- Lycodon septentrionalis {{small|(Günther, 1875)}} – white-banded wolf snake, northern large-toothed snake
- Lycodon serratus {{small|K. Wang, Yu, G. Vogel & Che, 2020}} – serrate-banded wolf snake
- Lycodon sidiki {{small|Wostl, Hamidy, Kurniawan & E.N. Smith, 2017}}
- Lycodon solivagus {{small|Ota & Ross, 1994}} – common wolf snake
- Lycodon stormi {{small|Boettger, 1892}} – Sulawesi wolf snake
- Lycodon striatus {{small|(Shaw, 1802)}} – northern wolf snake, barred wolf snake
- Lycodon subannulatus {{small|(A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril, 1854)}} – Malayan bridal snake, southern bridle snake
- Lycodon subcinctus {{small|F. Boie, 1827}} – Malayan banded wolf snake
- Lycodon synaptor {{small|G. Vogel & David, 2010}} – Boehme's wolf snake
- Lycodon tessellatus {{small|Jan, 1863}} – Manila wolf snake
- Lycodon tiwarii {{small|Biswas & Sanyal, 1965}} – Andaman wolf snake
- Lycodon travancoricus {{small|(Beddome, 1870)}} – Travancore wolf snake
- Lycodon tristrigatus {{small|Günther, 1858}}
- Lycodon truongi {{small|A.T. Nguyen, Duong, Wood & Grismer, 2022}} – Truong's wolf snake
- Lycodon zawi {{small|Slowinski et al., 2001}}{{EMBL species|genus=Lycodon|species=zawi}} www.reptile-database.org. – Zaw's wolf snake
- Lycodon zayuensis {{small|K. Jiang, Wang, Jin & Che, 2020}}
- Lycodon zoosvictoriae {{small|Neang et al., 2014}} – Zoos Victoria's wolf snake
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Lycodon.
In 2024, an other species of lycodon was discovered: lycodon neomaculatus, the Indochinese Banded Wolfsnake.