Melanophidium wynaudense

Melanophidium wynaudense
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Melanophidium
Species: M. wynaudense
Binomial name
Melanophidium wynaudense
(Beddome, 1863)
Synonyms
  • Plectrurus wynaudensis Beddome, 1863
  • Plectrurus wynandensis [sic] - Beddome, 1863
  • Melanophidium wynandense [sic] - Günther, 1864
  • Melanophidium wynadense [sic] - Boulenger, 1893
  • Melanophidium wynaudense - M.A. Smith, 1943
  • Melanophidium wyandense [sic] - E.E. Williams, 1959
  • Melanophidium wynaudense - McDiarmid et al., 1999[1][2]

Melanophidium wynaudense, commonly known as the Indian black earth snake, is a species of snake endemic to India.

Geographic range

It is found in the Western Ghats of southern India.

Type locality: Cherambady in Wayanad.

Description

Beddome (1864: 180): "Scales round the body 15, round the neck 16 or 17; rostral scarcely produced back between the nasals; no supraorbital; muzzle more obtuse than in P. perrotteti; eye small; subcaudals 11 pairs; anal large, bifid; tail compressed; scales smooth, terminal spinose, tail ending in a single horny point.

Colour bluish black, with broad white blotches on the belly, which become larger and more numerous towards the tail; tail uniform bluish black."

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 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. 163.
  2. ↑ The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

  • Beddome, R.H. 1863. Descriptions of New Species of the Family Uropeltidæ from Southern India, with Notes on other little-known Species. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863: 225-229, Plates XXV., XXVI., XXVII.
  • Beddome, R.H. 1863. Further Notes upon the Snakes of the Madras Presidency; with some Descriptions of New Species. Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci., 6: 41-48 [Reprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 306-314, 1940]
  • Beddome, R.H. 1864. Descriptions of New Species of the Family Uropeltidæ from Southern India, with Notes on other little-known Species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 13: 177-180
  • 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.
  • Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III. - Serpentes. Taylor and Francis. London. 583 pp.


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