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Issue: Vol. 5496 No. 2: 19 Aug. 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-08-19
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5496.2.7
Page range: 261-272
Abstract views: 125
PDF downloaded: 10

On further specimens of Dussumier’s Mud Snake Dieurostus dussumierii (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) with notes on its taxonomy, type material, and natural history (Reptilia: Serpentes: Homalopsidae)

Centre for Ecological Sciences; Indian Institute of Science; Bengaluru; Karnataka; India
Pavukandy House; Moolad P.O.; Narayamkulam; Kozhikode; Kerala 673614; India
Kalinga Foundation; Guddakere; Agumbe; Shimogga – 577 411; Karnataka; India
Reptilia burrow juvenile Kumarakom morphology type specimen Vembanad Lake

Abstract

We present new findings on Dussumier’s Mud Snake Dieurostus dussumierii based on recent fieldwork conducted in and around Vembanad Lake (Kumarakom) in Kerala, Southwest India. We describe a series of 10 voucher specimens, eight females and two males, ranging from juveniles (207 mm) to adults (835 mm). We report new data on microhabitat associations, fossorial haunts, sympatric aquatic snakes (Fowlea cf. piscator, Cerberus rynchops), and intraspecific morphological variations in this species. We also illustrate and describe an overlooked, historical, non-type specimen of this species collected over a century ago. This work assembles the largest dataset of preserved voucher specimens used to characterize D. dussumierii, since its description 170 years ago.

 

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