Uropeltis pulneyensis

Taxobox
name = Indian Earth Snake


image_width = 240px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia
ordo = Squamata
subordo = Serpentes
familia = Uropeltidae
genus = "Uropeltis"
species = "U. pulneyensis"
binomial = "Uropeltis pulneyensis"
binomial_authority = (Beddome, 1863)

Indian Earth Snake "Uropeltis pulneyensis" is a species of uripeltid snake found in the Western Ghats of India.

Description

Description after Beddome (1864: 180): "Rostral rather obtuse, produced back between the nasals, and touching the frontals, nasals not meeting; eye small, in front of the ocular shield; no supraorbitals; vertical 6-sided; occipitals rounded behind; 4 upper labials. Scales round the neck 19, round the body 17; subcaudals, male, about 12, female 6-8. Tail compressed, ending in a small spinose keel, more or less bicuspid. Scales of the tail all smooth. Colour uniform earthy brown; a lateral bright yellow streak from the labials continued on each side of the trunk, about 1 inch or 1_ inch in length; a few minute yellow specks on the back; belly with broad bright yellow transverse bands, very irregular as to number and shape; yellow markings about the vent and tail."

After Beddome (1864: 180), "pulneyensis" and "wynandensis" "..differ from the typical form of this genus in their much smaller size and in the absence of a supraorbital shield. As, however, they have the same compressed tail, I prefer keeping them in this genus to making a new genus for them."

Distribution

South India (Palni and Travancore hills, 5,000-7,000 feet).
*Type locality: "Pulneys at an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000 feet". ["Plectrurus pulneyensis" Beddome]
*Type locality: "High Wavy mountain, Madurai district, 5000 feet elevation". ["Silybura guentheri" Beddome]

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, 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. 1866 Notes upon the snakes of the Madras Presidency. Description and plate of a new species of snake of the family Uropeltidae from the Pulney Mountains. Madras Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, 9: 207-208 (228?). [Reprint: "J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci.", London, 1 10: 314, 1940]
* Beddome, R.H. 1878 Description of six new species of snakes of the genus Silybura, family Uropeltidae. "Proc. Zool. Soc. London", 1878: 800-802.
* 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

*