Calliophis is a genus of elapid snakes, one of several known commonly as oriental coral snakes or Asian coral snakes.
Species Species in this genus are: Calliophis beddomei (M.A. Smith, 1943) – Beddome's coral snake (India) Calliophis bibroni (Jan, 1858) – Bibron's coral snake (India) Calliophis bilineatus (Peters, 1881) – Two-stripped coral snake (Philippines) Calliophis bivirgatus (F. Boie, 1827) – Blue Malaysian coral snake (Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand) Calliophis castoe E.N. Smith, Ogale, Deepak & Giri, 2012 – Castoe’s coral snake (India) Calliophis gracilis Gray, 1835 – Spotted coral snake (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore) Calliophis haematoetron E.N. Smith, Manamendra-Arachchi & Somweera, 2008 – Blood-bellied coral snake (Sri Lanka) Calliophis intestinalis (Laurenti, 1768) – Banded Malaysian coral snake (Indonesia, Malaysia) Calliophis maculiceps (Günther, 1858) – Speckled coral snake (Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) Calliophis melanurus (Shaw, 1802) – Slender coral snake, Indian coral snake (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) Calliophis nigrescens (Günther, 1862) – Black coral snake (India) Calliophis nigrotaeniatus (Peters, 1863) – banded Malaysian coral snake, striped coral snake (Indonesia, Malaysia ) Calliophis philippinus (Günther, 1864) – Philippine coral snake (the Philippines) Calliophis salitan Brown, Smart, Leviton, & Smith, 2018 – Dinagat Island banded coral snake (the Philippines) Calliophis suluensis (Steindachner, 1891) – Sulu Islands banded coral snake (the Philippines)
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Calliophis.
Taxonomy The former Calliophis calligaster, the barred coral snake (Philippines), is now in the genus Hemibungarus.
Both Kellogg's coral snake (formerly C. kelloggi ) (Vietnam, Laos, China) and MacClelland's coral snake (formerly C. macclellandi ) are now in the genus Sinomicrurus.
Behaviour Snakes of the genus Calliophis are semifossorial.Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR. 1978. Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. xi + 378 pp. . (Genus Callophis [sic], p. 331).
References
Further reading Boulenger GA. 1896. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ), ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I-XXV. (Genus Callophis [sic], p. 396). Gray JE. 1834. Illustrations of Indian Zoology; Chiefly Selected from the Collection of Major-General Hardwicke, F.R.S., ... Vol. II. London: Adolphus Richter and Co. 102 plates. (Calliophis gracilis, Plate 86, Figures 1 & 3). Smith MA. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (Genus Callophis [sic], pp. 418–419).