LEVITON, BROWN, & SILER: PHILIPPINE VENOMOUS SNAKES 
493 
Species accounts of the venomous snakes of the 
Philippine Archipelago 
Family Elapidae 
Subfamily Elapinae 
Genus Calliophis Gray, 1834 
Calliophis Gray, 1834. (Type species: Aspis intestinalis Laurenti 1768). 
Diagnosis. — Maxilla extends forward beyond palatine; venom fangs followed by a diastema 
and then by one small, solid tooth; head not distinet from neek; loreal absent; nostril between 
nasals; eye small, pupil round; body eylindrieal, elongate; tail short; seales smooth, in 13 longitu¬ 
dinal rows at midbody; subeaudals paired; venom glands elongate, extending far baek into body 
eavity and terminating in an elongate, elub-shaped end; hypapophyses present throughout vertebral 
eolumn. 
General features of Philippine species. — Dorsal seales in 13 longitudinal rows exeept 
just behind the head where they are in 15 rows; preeloaeal seale undivided; venter usually with an 
alternating series of blaek and light erossbars; head, at least posteriorly, dark. 
Remarks. — The speeies ineluded here in Calliophis were, until reeently, plaeed in the genus 
Maticora. Apart from the reasignment of speeies formerly referred to Calliophis, Hemibungarus, 
and Maticora by earlier authors (e.g., Leviton 1964, Toriba 1993, David and Ineieh 1999 [q.v. for 
additional references]) and contrary to previous analyses, Slowinski et al. (2001) demonstrated that 
the type species of Calliophis and Maticora had been improperly assigned and that the type species 
of Calliophis is Aspis intestinalis Laurenti, 1768, by monotypy and whose type locality is Java, 
Indonesia (restricted by Leviton 1964:529). 
Calliophis bilineata Peters, 1881 
Two Stripped Coral Snake 
Figure 31 
Calliophis bilineatus Peters, 1881:109 (type locality: “Pulauan” [=Palawan]). 
Maticora intestinalis bilineata, Leviton, 1964:532. 
Description. — Black crossbars on venter not in contact with black on sides of body; pre- 
frontals, and usually internasals, rostral and first two upper labials white (in alcohol-preserved 
specimens); a distinct white line always present on side of body between first and second scale 
rows, or first scale row completely white; dorsum of tail with two or three black crossbars, other¬ 
wise red or cream; ventrals (cJ) 232-260, ($) 266-285; subeaudals (cJ) 24-31, ($) 23-25 
Figure 31. Calliophis bilineata. Illustrations by Emily M. Eng. 
