NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Barnes’ Cat Snake
Boiga barnesii (Günther, 1869)
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
Boiga barnesii is a species of cat snake endemic to Sri Lanka. It is known as Barnes' cat snake in English and panduru mapila-පදුරු මාපිලා in Sinhala. It is a member of the snake family Colubridae. It is distributed in the lowlands and midlands up to approximately 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level, with known localities include Matale, Kandy, Gannoruwa, Gampola, Ambagamuwa, Balangoda, Labugama and Sinharaja Rain Forest. Barnes' cat snake is mainly a forest-dwelling species but may occasionally be found in human habitats. It is the smallest cat snake in Sri Lanka and grows up to a maximum of about 600 mm (24 in) in snout-vent length. Being a nocturnal and an arboreal hunter, it mainly feeds on agamid lizards and geckos. The day time is usually spent inside a tree hole or a crevice. It's a very timid and a mildly venomous snake and rarely attempts to bite.
Wikipedia contributors, Boiga barnesii; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:09:46.484344+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Boiga barnesii (Günther, 1869)
- Name authority
- (Günther, 1869)
- Common name
- Barnes’ Cat Snake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Colubridae
- Genus
- Boiga
- 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
- subfamilyColubrinae
- genusBoiga
- speciesBoiga barnesii (Günther, 1869)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Boiga. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow-green cat snakeBoiga flaviviridis Vogel & Ganesh, 2013 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Brown Tree SnakeBoiga irregularis (Bechstein, 1802) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Boiga guangxiensis Wen, 1998 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Black-headed Cat SnakeBoiga nigriceps (Günther, 1863) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Many-banded Tree SnakeBoiga multifasciata (Blyth, 1861) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Philippine Cat SnakeBoiga philippina (Peters, 1867) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Schultz's Blunt-headedTree SnakeBoiga schultzei Taylor, 1923 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ranawana’s Cat SnakeBoiga ranawanei Samarawickrama, Samarawickrama, Wijesena & Orlov, 2005 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Assamese Cat SnakeBoiga quincunciata (Wall, 1908) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Common Cat SnakeBoiga trigonata (Schneider, 1802) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Forsten's Cat SnakeBoiga forsteni (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lesser Sundas Cat SnakeBoiga hoeseli Ramadhan, Iskandar & Subasri, 2010 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Dipsas barnesii Günther, 1869 Günther, 1869 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
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=Boiga&species=barnesii 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:68NH4. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.