NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Common Brown Water Snake
Lycodonomorphus rufulus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
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.
Lycodonomorphus rufulus in situ
Ryanvanhuyssteen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The common brown water snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus) is a species of nonvenomous South African snake.
This gentle, harmless snake is by far the most common water snake in southern Africa. It can be found from Cape Town in the south, along the wet east coast of South Africa and inland as far as Gauteng, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Throughout its range, its natural habitat is water margins, where it shelters under leaves and logs. It emerges at night to hunt frogs and sometimes rodents. It lays up to 10 eggs at the end of summer.
Wikipedia contributors, Common brown water snake; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:41:37.280490+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Lycodonomorphus rufulus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
- Name authority
- (Lichtenstein, 1823)
- Common name
- Common Brown Water Snake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Lamprophiidae
- Genus
- Lycodonomorphus
- 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
- familyLamprophiidae
- genusLycodonomorphus
- speciesLycodonomorphus rufulus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Lycodonomorphus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Tanganyika (White-bellied) Water SnakeLycodonomorphus bicolor (Günther, 1893) | LamprophiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Dusky-bellied Water SnakeLycodonomorphus laevissimus (Günther, 1862) | LamprophiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Floodplain Water SnakeLycodonomorphus obscuriventris Fitzsimons, 1963 | LamprophiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Whyte's Water-SnakeLycodonomorphus whytii (Boulenger, 1897) | LamprophiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Congo Dark-bellied Water-SnakeLycodonomorphus leleupi (Laurent, 1950) | LamprophiidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Coluber rufulus Lichtenstein, 1823 Lichtenstein, 1823 | synonym |
| Coronella leucopilus Smith, 1831 Smith, 1831 | 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=Lycodonomorphus&species=rufulus 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.
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:6QPGS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.