Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5319 No. 1: 24 Jul. 2023
Type: Article
Published: 2023-07-24
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5319.1.7
Page range: 103-119
Abstract views: 393
PDF downloaded: 20

On the taxonomy of Uropeltis petersi (Beddome, 1878) (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) and description of a new, closely related species from the Western Ghats of India

Natural History Museum; London SW7 5BD; UK Department of Zoology; Central University of Kerala; Kerala; 671320; India
Reptilia Anamalai new species shieldtail snake systematics taxonomy

Abstract

A new species of the uropeltid snake genus Uropeltis Cuvier, 1829 is described from the environs of Munnar in the Anamalai hils of the Western Ghats of peninsular India. Uropeltis tricuspida sp. nov. superficially resembles the poorly known and closely related U. petersi, but differs from that species in having more ventral and subcaudal scales, and a tri- rather than bicuspid posterior tip to the terminal scute.

 

References

  1. Beddome, R.H. (1878) Descriptions of new Uropeltidae from southern India, with remarks on some previously described species. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 46, 154–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1878.tb07946.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1878.tb07946.x
  2. Beddome, R.H. (1886) An account of the earth-snakes of the peninsula of India and Ceylon. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 5, 17 (97), 3–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222938609460106 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222938609460106
  3. Boulenger, G.A. (1890) Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma—Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis London, 541 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.100797 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.100797
  4. Boulenger, G.A. (1893) Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). Vol. I. Taylor & Francis, London, 448 pp.
  5. Constable, J.D. (1949) Reptiles from the Indian Peninsula in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 103, 59–160.
  6. Dowling, H.G. (1951) A proposed method of expressing scale reductions in snakes. Copeia, 1951, 131–134. https://doi.org/10.2307/1437542 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1437542
  7. Gans, C. (1966) Liste der Rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien: Uropeltidae. W. de Gruyter, Berlin, 34 pp.
  8. Gower, D.J. & Ablett, J.D. (2006) Counting ventral scales in Asian anilioid snakes. Herpetological Journal, 16, 259–263.
  9. IUCN Species Survival Commission (2012) IUCN Red List categories and criteria, version 3.1, second edition. IUCN, Gland and Cambridge, 32 pp.
  10. McDiarmid, R.W., Campbell, J.A. & Touré, T. (1999) Snake Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Vol. 1. The Herpetologists’ League, Washington, 511 pp.
  11. Pyron, R.A., Ganesh, S.R., Sayyed, A., Sharma, V., Wallach, V. & Somaweera, R. (2016) A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae). Zoosystema, 38 (4), 453–506. https://doi.org/10.5252/z2016n4a2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5252/z2016n4a2
  12. Rajendran, M.V. (1985) Studies in uropeltid snakes. Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 132 pp.
  13. Sampaio, F.L., Day, J.J., Wickramasinghe, L.J.M., Cyriac, V.P., Papadopoulou, A., Brace, S., Rajendran, A., Simon-Nutbrown, C., Flouris, T., Kapli, P., Vidanapathirana, D.R., Kotharambath, R., Kodandaramaiah, U. & Gower, D.J. (2023) A near-complete species-level phylogeny of uropeltid snakes harnessing historical museum collections as a DNA source. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution, 178, 107651 [published online] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107651 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107651
  14. Smith, M.A. (1943) The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Subregion. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. 3. Serpentes. Taylor & Francis, London, 583 pp.
  15. Uetz, P. & Hoˇsek, J. (2022) The Reptile Database. WWW Document. Available from. http://www.reptile-database.org (accessed 4 July 2023)
  16. Wall, F. (1923) How to identify the snakes of India. Union Press, Karachi, 56 pp.
  17. Wallach, V., Williams, K.L. & Boundy, J. (2014) Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1237 pp. https://doi.org/10.1201/b16901 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/b16901