- Melanophidium wynaudense
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Indian Black Earth Snake Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Squamata Suborder: Serpentes Family: Uropeltidae Genus: Melanophidium Species: M. wynaudense Binomial name Melanophidium wynaudense
(Beddome, 1863)Synonyms Plectrurus wynaudensis
Indian Black Earth Snake Melanophidium wynaudense is a species of snake found in the Western Ghats.
Description
Beddome (1864: 180): "Scales round the body 15, round the neck 16 or 17; rostral scarcely produced back between the nasals; no supraorbital; muzzle more obtuse than in P. perrotteti; eye small; subcaudals 11 pairs; anal large, bifid; tail compressed; scales smooth, terminal spinose, tail ending in a single horny point. Colour bluish black, with broad white blotches on the belly, which become larger and more numerous towards the tail; tail uniform bluish black."
Type locality: Cherambady in Wayanad.
Further reading
- Beddome, Richard Henry 1863 Descriptions of new species of the family Uropeltidae from Southern India, with notes on other little-known species. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863: 225-229.
- Beddome, Richard Henry 1863 Further notes upon the snakes of the Madras Presidency; with some descriptions of new species. Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci., 6: 41-48 [Reprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 306-314, 1940]
- Beddome,R.H. 1864 Description of new species of the family Uropeltidae from Southern India, with notes on other little-known species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 13: 177-180
- Beddome,R.H. 1886 An account of the earth snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 17: 3-33.
External links
- Melanophidium wynaudense at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 13 December 2007.
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