Pareas
Genus of snakes
Pareas is a genus of Asian snakes in the family Pareidae . Members of the genus are dietary specialists mainly or exclusively feeding on snails (limaxivory ), hence their common name, slug snakes . All species in the genus Pareas are harmless to humans.
Species
Pareas contains the following species:
Pareas abros Poyarkov , Nguyen, Pawangkhanant, Yushchenko, Brakels, Nguyen, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, Orlov, & Vogel, 2022
Pareas andersonii Boulenger , 1888 – Anderson's slug snake
Pareas atayal You , Poyarkov & Lin , 2015 – Atayal slug-eating snake
Pareas baiseensis Wu, Gong, Huang, & Xu, 2023
Pareas berdmorei Theobald, 1868 – Mengla snail-eating snake
Pareas boulengeri (Angel , 1920) – Boulenger's slug snake
Pareas capitulatus Stuart et al. 2025 - narrow-headed snail-eating snake
Pareas carinatus (H. Boie , 1828) – keeled slug snake
Pareas chinensis (Barbour , 1912) – Chinese slug snake
Pareas dulongjiangensis Liu, Yang, Rao, Guo, & Rao. 2023 – Dulongjiang slug‐eating snake
Pareas formosensis (Van Denburgh , 1909) – Formosa slug snake, Taiwan slug snake
Pareas guanyinshanensis Liu, Yang, Rao, Guo, & Rao, 2023 – Guanyinshan slug-eating snake
Pareas hamptoni (Boulenger , 1905) – Hampton's slug snake
Pareas iwasakii (Maki , 1937)
Pareas kaduri Bhosale , Phansalkar , Sawant , Gowande , Patel & Mirza , 2020
Pareas komaii (Maki, 1931) – Formosa slug snake
Pareas kuznetsovorum Poyarkov, Nguyen, Pawangkhanant, Yushchenko, Brakels, Nguyen, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, Orlov, & Vogel, 2022
Pareas macularius Theobald , 1868 – mountain slug snake
Pareas margaritophorus (Jan , 1866) – mountain slug snake
Pareas modestus (Theobald , 1868)
Pareas monticola (Cantor , 1839) – common slug snake
Pareas niger (Pope, 1928) – black snail-eating snake, Mengzi snail-eating snake
Pareas nigriceps Guo & Deng , 2009 – Xiaoheishan slug-eater snake
Pareas nuchalis (Boulenger, 1900)
Pareas stanleyi (Boulenger, 1914) – Stanley's slug snake
Pareas temporalis Le, Tran, Hoang, & Stuart, 2021
Pareas tigerinus Liu, Zhang, Poyarkov, Hou, Wu, Rao, Nguyen & Vogel, 2023 – tiger slug‐eating snake
Pareas victorianus G. Vogel, T.V. Nguyen, Zaw & Poyarkov, 2020 – Victoria slug snake
Pareas vindumi G. Vogel, 2015 – Vindum's slug eater
Pareas xuelinensis Liu & Rao , 2021
Pareas yunnanensis Vogt, 1922 – Yunnan slug snake
Pareas melanops Liu, Li, Yang & Rao, 2025
Nota bene : A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Pareas .
References
↑ Wagler J (1830). Natürliches System der AMPHIBIEN, mit vorangehender Classification der SÄUGTHIERE und VÖGEL. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Zoologie. Munich, Stuttgart and Tübingen: J.G. Cotta. vi + 354 pp. + one plate. (Pareas , new genus, p. 181). (in German and Latin).
↑ Pareas at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database . Accessed 12 May 2013.
↑ "Pareas ". Dahms Tierleben . www.dahmstierleben.de
↑ Wang, Ping; Che, Jing; Liu, Qin; Li, Ke; Jin, Jie Qiong; Jiang, Ke; Shi, Lei; Guo, Peng (2020-09-06). "A revised taxonomy of Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny" . ZooKeys (939): 45– 64. doi :10.3897/zookeys.939.49309 . ISSN 1313-2970 . PMC 7297803 . PMID 32577082 . (Pareas menglaensis , new species).
1 2 Bhosale, Harshal; Phansalkar, Pushkar; Sawant, Mandar; Gowande, Gaurang; Patel, Harshil; Mirza, Zeeshan A. (2020-12-17). "A new species of snail-eating snakes of the genus Pareas Wagler, 1830 (Reptilia: Serpentes) from eastern Himalayas, India" (PDF) . European Journal of Taxonomy (729): 54–73–54–73. doi :10.5852/ejt.2020.729.1191 . ISSN 2118-9773 . (Pareas kaduri , new species).
↑ Stuart, Bryan L.; Seateun, Sengvilay; Sivongxay, Niane; Souvannavong, Siliphone; Phimmachak, Somphouthone (2025-03-29). "A new species in the Pareas hamptoni group (Squamata, Pareidae) from southeastern Laos" (PDF) . Zoological Research: Diversity and Conservation . doi :10.24272/j.issn.2097-3772.2024.028 . ISSN 2097-3772 .
↑ Liu, Shuo; Rao, Dingqi (2021-01-21). "A new species of the genus Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae) from Yunnan, China" . ZooKeys (1011): 121– 138. doi :10.3897/zookeys.1011.59029 . ISSN 1313-2970 . PMC 7843430 . PMID 33564273 . (Pareas xuelinensis , new species).