NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

Blackbelly Snake

Hydraethiops melanogaster Günther, 1872

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Open encyclopedia reference

Hydraethiops melanogaster, the blackbelly snake, is a species of natricine snake found in Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and South Sudan.

Wikipedia contributors, Hydraethiops melanogaster; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:52:15.062816+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name: Hydraethiops melanogaster Günther, 1872
Name authority: Günther, 1872
Common name: Blackbelly Snake
Rank: species
Accepted status: accepted
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Colubridae
Genus: Hydraethiops
Extinction status: Not supplied by this source

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
subphylumVertebrata
infraphylumGnathostomata
parvphylumOsteichthyes
megaclassTetrapoda
classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
familyColubridae
subfamilyNatricinae
genusHydraethiops
speciesHydraethiops melanogaster Günther, 1872

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Hydraethiops. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Species	Classification	Source status
Hydraethiops laevis Boulenger, 1904	ColubridaeChordata	Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 1,632 records assigned to Colubridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded name	Source status
Helicops lineofasciatus Sauvage, 1884 Sauvage, 1884	synonym
Helicops marginatus Fischer, 1883 Fischer, 1883	synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire; except in the south), Congo (Brazzaville), Central African Republic, Cameroon, Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Equatorial Guinea

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Hydraethiops&species=melanogaster Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3N48Z. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.