Corresponding author: Pratyush P. Mohapatra (
Academic editor Uwe Fritz
We reassess the taxonomy of the Indian endemic snake
The fossorial snakes of the genus
We generated DNA sequence data for the mitochondrial
DNA sequence data for mitochondrial
|
|
|
|
|
genseq-1 |
||
|
genseq-1 |
||
|
genseq-1 |
||
|
genseq-3 |
||
CES 2016b |
|
genseq-3 |
|
|
genseq-3 |
||
CAS 17199 |
|
genseq-4 |
|
ADR 507 |
|
— | |
CHS 886 |
|
— | |
CHS 868 |
|
— | |
|
— |
Bayesian (
In addition to the materials of the species described here, we examined the type material of all species of
Catalogue numbers for voucher specimens bear the following prefixes:
Meristic and morphometric (in mm) character data for
|
|
|
|
|
† |
Specimen status | Holotype | Paratype | Paratype | Referred specimen | Referred specimens |
Sex | Male | Male | Male | Female? | Male & Female |
DSR | 15:15:15 | 15:15:15 | 15:15:15 | 15:15:15 | 15:15:15 |
SL | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
IL | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
TL | 136 | 112 | 125 | 115 | 176–199 |
tL | 16 | 10.4 | 15.4 | — | 10–16 |
W | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.7 | — | 4.62–4.70 |
V | 123 | 120 | 123 | c.125 | 117–118 |
SC | 23 | 22 | 20 | 16 | 13–18 |
HL | 4.3 | 3.8 | 4.4 | — | 4.75–4.93 |
Hw | 3.6 | 2.9 | 3.7 | — | 4.27–4.55 |
F-Snt | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | — | 1.87–1.99 |
PrfL | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | — | 0.51–0.65 |
F-Snt ÷ PrfL | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.3 | — | 3.06–3.60 |
FL | 2.6 | 1.9 | 2.1 | — | 2.51–2.55 |
Fw | 1.8 | 1.8 | 2.0 | — | 2.23–2.33 |
PaL | 2.2 | 2.0 | 2.5 | — | 2.47–2.62 |
Both
Uncorrected pairwise distances for mitochondrial
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
||||||||||
2 |
|
0.042 | |||||||||
3 |
|
0.095 | 0.086 | ||||||||
4 | 0.109 | 0.102 | 0.051 | ||||||||
5 | 0.101 | 0.096 | 0.046 | 0.000 | |||||||
6 | 0.110 | 0.107 | 0.055 | 0.000 | 0.006 | ||||||
7 |
|
0.086 | 0.080 | 0.063 | 0.074 | 0.070 | 0.077 | ||||
8 |
|
0.148 | 0.150 | 0.112 | 0.090 | 0.114 | 0.090 | 0.117 | |||
9 |
|
0.119 | 0.119 | 0.069 | 0.087 | 0.083 | 0.089 | 0.091 | 0.093 | ||
10 |
|
0.126 | 0.130 | 0.119 | 0.137 | 0.132 | 0.138 | 0.112 | 0.141 | 0.136 | |
11 |
|
0.149 | 0.151 | 0.126 | 0.151 | 0.151 | 0.151 | 0.136 | 0.124 | 0.147 | 0.098 |
India, Tamil Nadu: close to Marthandam,
Distribution of
Holotype male, spirit preserved, with hemipenis in a separate vial,
Holotype of
Head of holotype of
Views of the head of paratypes of
The new species is assigned to the genus
The new species differs from
Some morphometric and meristic data are given in Table
Back of head slightly wider than anterior of the neck and narrowing steadily anteriorly thereafter. Head short, 4.3 mm, and high, 2.6 mm, with steeply domed snout in lateral view. Snout abruptly tapering to blunt, rounded tip in dorsal view. Rounded rostral short in dorsal view, much shorter than the distance between it and prefrontal scales. Nasals undivided, not in contact with each other and each smaller than the rostral that separates them anteriorly. Naris subcircular, situated in the anterior part of the nasal. Paired internasals large, much larger than the nasals and rostral. Prefrontals distinctly larger than the internasals in area and slightly longer along the midline suture (0.7 mm vs. 0.5 mm between internasals). Frontal kite-shaped with the anterior margin slightly convex, noticeably longer (2.6 mm) than broad (1.8 mm) and almost as long as the parietals. Parietals longer than wide, with short midline contact (0.4 mm), much shorter than midline contact between internasals and between prefrontals.
Five supralabials, third and fourth contacting eye; first very small, contacting second supralabial, rostral and nasal; second is a thin strip contacting the nasal, loreal and adjacent supralabials; third taller than long, contacting loreal and adjacent supralabials; fourth slightly larger than the third, contacting postocular, anterior temporal and adjacent supralabials; fifth largest, touching anterior and lower posterior temporal as well as fourth supralabial. Eyes small with a subcircular pupil. One supraocular and one postocular on each side, subequal in size. One anterior temporal, larger than two subequal posterior temporals. Mental short, broad, with a tripartite anterior end. Anterior two infralabials short and thin, second slightly larger. The length of first two infralabials together shorter than the third, and in lateral view falling notably short of halfway along the length of anterior genials. Fourth and fifth infralabials much larger. Pair of anterior genials, large, meeting substantially along the midline. Posterior pair of genials much smaller, contacting briefly along the midline, largely divided by the intervening anteriormost ventral. First unpaired midventral scale (= first ventral, here) between posterior genials, larger than the subsequent ventrals, longer than wide and the subsequent ventral scales are wider than long. Body subcylindrical, ventral surface slightly flattened, Dorsal scales in 15 rows at the level of fifth ventral until the posteriormost ventral. Dorsal scales macroscopically smooth, regularly arranged, evenly sized across the body and apical pits absent. Ventrals scales 123 in number, all similarly proportioned except for anteriormost ventral. Anal shield undivided, larger than the last ventrals, its posterior margin overlaps six scales on each side, including the subcaudals. Subcaudals in 23 pairs. Tail terminates in bluntly tapering, apical, spine-like scute.
Scales on the body and tail iridescent. Head scales match this, except for some of the anterior supralabials and infralabials. Overall, the specimen is in shades of brown mottled with off-white and with a distinct off-white collar. Ventral surface paler and less mottled than dorsum, and first three ventrals and adjacent scales mottled off-white continuation of the collar. The main body of each ventral and subcaudal scale are fairly uniform, pale brown, sometimes with an indistinct dark proximal margin anteriorly and off-white margin posteriorly. Upper and sides of the head and body-tail junction are darkest parts of the animal, notably darker than the body. Dorsal head scales generally dark brown with distinct irregular off-white mottling on all scales except for darker frontal. First two supralabials and first three infralabials off-white with a small brown patch only on the second supralabial. Other lateral head scales brownish with very little pale mottling except for a substantial off-white patch on the anterior part of the lower posterior temporal. Collar band off-white, approximately two scales wide with slightly irregular anterior and posterior edges, extends laterally on both sides and connected ventrally where it is two to three scales wide but somewhat broken by brown mottling. Three distinct dark lines on the dorsal surface, running from behind the collar to tail tip, all more than half a dorsal scale wide, being one scale wide at the body-tail junction. Distinct dark dorsal stripe up to almost one scale wide, medially along the middorsal line, narrowly breaking the pale collar mid-dorsally. Middorsal line confined to the midline (eighth) scale row and the pair of dorsolateral lines confined to the 5th dorsal scale row on each side. Three thin, indistinct ventrolateral lines run along the first three dorsal scale rows of each side, becoming feeble and almost invisible at the level of approximately the 30th ventral. Between dark longitudinal lines, scales are various shades of mottled pale brown and off-white. In life, the colouration is almost the same as in the preserved condition except for the pale collar which has faded in ethanol-preserved specimens.
Hemipenis of
See Table
This species is named in honour of the Indian herpetologist Dr Deepak Veerappan, in recognition of his substantial, 21st Century contributions to herpetology, including work on
Based on the limited current knowledge,
The holotype (
Habitat of
Currently,
This revised key is based on that presented by
|
Dorsal scales in 13 rows at midbody; supraocular notably larger than postocular; six or more infralabials |
|
– | Dorsal scales in 15 rows at midbody; supraocular and postocular shields subequal in size; five infralabials |
|
|
First ventral separates the posterior genials and contacts the anterior genials | |
– | Posterior genials in midline contact, preventing contact between first ventral and anterior genials |
|
|
Ventrals 120–135; prefrontal shields much longer than internasals; second infralabial notably longer than first, the two together being about as long as the third infralabial | |
– | Ventrals 106–125; prefrontals and internasals subequal in midline length; second infralabial only marginally longer than first, the two together being shorter than the third infralabial |
|
|
Ventrals 102–113; pale collar restricted to dorsum; hemipenis body with large flounces |
|
– | Ventrals 117–125; pale collar extends onto venter; hemipenis body without flounces |
|
Our description of
Classification of
During this study, it was drawn to our attention (V. Deepak, pers. comm.) that the numbers of subcaudals of
As per our present understanding,
In addition to new materials reported here, we have identified some of the
The authors have no funding to report.
The authors have declared no competing interests exist.
SN thanks Dr Aravind Madyastha (ATREE, Bengaluru) and SB thanks Dr Aneesh Embalil for support and making lab facilities available; Rahul Khot, Saunak Pal, Vithoba Hegde, Shyam Jadhav for extending full support during the visits to