The Ahaetuliinae are a subfamily of the snake family

Colubridae Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ever ...

that was erected in 2016 and comprises five genera containing 63 species (''

Ahaetulla ''Ahaetulla,'' commonly referred to as Asian vine snakes or Asian whip snakes, is a genus of colubrid snakes distributed throughout tropical Asia. They are considered by some scientists to be mildly venomous and are what is commonly termed as ' ...

'' 7 species ''

Chrysopelea ''Chrysopelea'', more commonly known as the flying snake or gliding snake is a genus that belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snakes are mildly venomous, though the venom is dangerous only to their small prey. Their range is in Southeast A ...

'' species ''

Dendrelaphis ''Dendrelaphis'' is a genus of colubrid snakes, distributed from Pakistan, India and southern China to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There are over forty described species. Asian species ...

'' 5 species ''

Dryophiops ''Dryophiops'' is a genus of snakes of the family Colubridae.. Both species in this genus are found in Southeast Asia, with ''D. philippina'' being found in the Philippines and ''D. rubescens'' being found in mainland Southeast Asia and Indonesi ...

'' speciesand '' Proahaetulla'' species that are more closely related to one another than to members of the subfamily

Colubrinae The Colubrinae are a subfamily of the family Colubridae of snakes. It includes numerous genera, and although taxonomic sources often disagree on the exact number, The Reptile Database lists 717 species in 92 genera as of September 2019. It is th ...

. Previously placed within Colubrinae, Ahaetuliinae was strongly supported as the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

to Colubrinae in a 2016 study by Figueroa et al. Ahaetuliine snakes are arboreal and have keeled ventral and subcaudal scales (laterally notched in some species), and enlarged posterior grooved fangs (lacking in some ''Dendrelaphis''). The name comes from the genus ''Ahaetulla'', which gets its name from the Sri Lankan

Sinhalese language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also sp ...

words ''ahaetulla/ahata gulla/as gulla'', meaning “eye plucker” or “eye picker”, because of the belief that they pluck out the eyes of humans, as first reported by the Portuguese traveler João Ribeiro in 1685. Ahaetuliinae are distributed from Pakistan, through India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh, throughout Southeast Asia into southeastern China, in the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, and northeastern Australia. Most species are found in forests. Notable traits include gliding in ''Chrysopelea'', jumping behavior in ''Dendrelaphis'', and horizontal keyhole-shaped pupils in ''Ahaetulla''.

Genera

*''

'' (17 species) *''

'' (5 species) *''

'' (46 species) *''

'' (2 species) *'' Proahaetulla'' (1 species)

References

Alethinophidia {{Colubrids-stub