Uropeltis myhendrae

Uropeltis myhendrae, commonly known as Mahendragiri earth snake or the Myhendra Mountain Uropeltis, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. It is endemic to Western Ghats.

Uropeltis myhendrae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Uropeltis
Species:
U. myhendrae
Binomial name
Uropeltis myhendrae
(Beddome, 1886)[2]
Synonyms

Geographic range

It is found in southern India, in the Western Ghats south of the Sencottah Gap, in states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, erstwhile Travancore; 2,000 - 4,000 feet).

Type locality: "South Travancore, on the Myhendra Mountain", southern India.

Description

Dorsum dark purplish brown, each scale with a yellowish crescent-shaped posterior border. Three or four dark transverse blotches behind the head. Ventrum yellowish, adults with small purplish brown spots, young with large transverse blackish rhomboids.

Adults may attain 33.5 cm (13 1⁄4 in) in total length.

Dorsal scales in 17 rows at midbody, in 19 rows behind the head. Ventrals 139-153; subcaudals 7-8.

Snout obtuse. Rostral ¼ to almost ⅓ the length of the shielded part of the head. Portion of the rostral visible from above slightly longer than its distance from the frontal. Nasals narrowly in contact with each other behind the rostral. Frontal slightly longer than broad. Diameter of eye somewhat more than ½ the length of the ocular shield. Diameter of the body 25 to 32 times in the total length. Ventrals two times as wide as the contiguous scales. Tail obliquely truncate, flat dorsally, with strongly bicarinate or strongly tricarinate dorsal scales. Terminal scute with a transverse ridge, indistinctly bicuspid, rounded in the young.[5]

Footnotes
  1. Srinivasulu, B.; Srinivasulu, C.; Ganesan, S.R. & Vijayakumar, S.P. (2013). "Uropeltis myhendrae". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2013: e.T172637A1356899. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T172637A1356899.en. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  2. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). www.itis.gov.
  3. 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. p. 156
  4. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  5. 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. p. 156, Plate IX, figure 1.

Further reading
  • 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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