Plectrurus aureus

Plectrurus aureus, commonly known as the Kerala burrowing snake or Kerala shieldtail,[1] is a species of uropeltid snake endemic to India.

Plectrurus aureus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Plectrurus
Species:
P. aureus
Binomial name
Plectrurus aureus
Beddome, 1880

Geographic range

It is found in southwestern India in the Western Ghats.

Type locality: "Chambra mountain in Wynad, near Kalpatty - one under an old rotten log at 6,000 feet elevation, the other under a large stone at 4,500 feet, both in heavy evergreen forest".

Description

Dorsum gold-colored, the scales edged with violet; a few irregular narrow violet-black crossbars may be present. Ventrum brighter gold-colored, with violet-black crossbands or alternating spots.

Adults may attain a total length of 40 cm (15 3⁄4 in).

Ventrals 164-177; subcaudals 8-12.

Scalation very similar to Plectrurus guentheri, except the ventrals are two times as broad as the contiguous scales. Diameter of body 39 to 44 times in the total length.[2]

Footnotes
  1. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Uropeltidæ... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. pp. 162-163, Plate X., Figures 3. & 3a.

Further reading
  • Beddome, R.H. 1880. Description of a new Snake of the Genus Plectrurus from Malabar. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880: 182.
  • 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.


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