Calliophis intestinalis (Laurenti, 1768)

Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, Zootaxa 5287 (1), pp. 1-378 : 192-194

Calliophis intestinalis (Laurenti, 1768) — Native.

Aspis intestinalis Laurenti, 1768: 106 . Lectotype: specimen described and illustrated by Seba (1735: 4, pl. 2, fig. 7), designated by Wallach et al. (2014: 145). Type locality: “[h]abitat in Africa” (in error); later designated as “ Java ”, Indonesia by Leviton (1964: 529).

Banded Malayan Coral Snake

( Figure 22A )

Singapore records.

Elaps furcatus — Cantor, 1839a: 34.—Peters, 1859: 271.

Elaps intestinalis — Cantor, 1847c: 1028, 1074.—Theobald, 1868b: 74.— Flower, 1899: 614.

Elaps intestinalis var.— Cantor, 1847c: 1031, 1071, 1078.

Callophis intestinalis var. malayana — Ģnther, 1864: 349.

Callophis intestinalis — Dennys, 1880a: 3.— Blanford, 1881: 216.— Davison, 1892: 92.

Adenophis intestinalis —Sclater, 1891a: 57.

Doliophis intestinalis var. annectens — Boulenger, 1896: 402.— Flower, 1896: 895.

Doliophis intestinalis var. lineata — Boulenger, 1896: 403.— Flower, 1896: 895.

Doliophis intestinalis — Flower, 1899: 693.—Ridley, 1899: 209.— Barbour, 1912: 137.— de Rooij, 1917: 253.

Maticora intestinalis —Sworder, 1923: 72.— Buddle, 1929: 24 (Sembawang Naval Base [= SML]).— Smith, 1943: 528.— Harman, 1961: 182.—D.S. Johnson, 1964: 27.— Leviton, 1964: 527, 531.— Meers, 1968: 152–153.— Grandison, 1972: 93.—Sharma, 1973: 236.—K. Lim & F. Lim, 1988b: 50 (Sime Road Forest).—K. Lim, 1989b: 19 (Sime Road Forest).—K. Lim, 1989e: 38 (Old Upper Thomson Road).—K. Lim, 1989h: 64 (Sime Road Forest).—F.L.K. Lim & M.T.-M. Lee, 1989: 84, 115.— Gopalakrishnakone, 1990: 3.—K. Lim, 1990a: 9 (Choa Chu Kang Road [CCK]; Kent Ridge [NUS]; Lornie Road; Sime Road [SRF]; Upper Peirce Reservoir Road).—K.K.P. Lim & L.M. Chou, 1990: 54.—K.K.P. Lim & Subharaj, 1991: 5 (Seletar Reservoir Park [USRP]).—Subharaj & K.K.P. Lim, 1991b: 3 (Ulu Sembawang).—F.L.K. Lim, 1991: 73.—D.S. Johnson, 1992: 37, 38.— K.K.P. Lim & Subharaj, 1992: 8 (Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology, Kent Ridge [NUS]; Old Upper Thomson Road; Ulu Sembawang Track; Upper Peirce Reservoir Road).—K.K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 1992: 89, 148.—Wee, 1992: 74 (Lower Peirce Reservoir Park).—K.K.P. Lim, 1993b: 2 (Rifle Range Road).—K.K.P. Lim & Subaraj, 1994: 6 (Venus Drive [WNP]).—R. Subaraj, 1994: 11 (Bukit Timah Nature Reserve).—R. Subaraj, 1994: 13 (Sime Road Forest; Upper Peirce West Forest).—L.M. Chou et al., 1994: 105.—R. Subaraj et al., 1995: 3 (Bukit Kalang Service Road [SRF]).—K. Lim et al., 1995: 14 (Old Upper Thomson Road; Rifle Range Road).—K. Lim, 1995: 17 (Bukit Kalang Service Road [SRF]; Bukit Timah Nature Reserve; Dairy Farm Quarry [DFNP]; Lower Peirce Forest [LPF]; Rifle Range Road).—R.C.H. Teo & Rajathurai, 1997: 385 (MacRitchie).—Chan-ard et al., 1999: 38.—K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 2002: 148.— Cross, 2020a: 3 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020d: 3 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020e: 2 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020h: 1, 3 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020j: 1 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020l: 1 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020m: 2, 6 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020n: 2, 7 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).

Maticora intestinalis intestinalis — de Haas, 1950: 602.

Maticora intestinalis lineata —Golay et al., 1993: 152.— David & Vogel, 1996: 156.— Iskandar & Colijn, 2001: 151.

Calliophis intestinalis — de Lang & Vogel, 2005: 262.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2008: 116, 161.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2008: 265.— Das, 2010: 315.—L.L. Grismer, 2011a: 216.—P.K.L. Ng et al., 2011: 302.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2012: 116, 161.— Das, 2012a: 92.—K.K.P. Lim, 2014b: 97 (Block S6, Kent Ridge [NUS]).—Wallach et al., 2014: 145.—Chan-ard et al., 2015: 256.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2016: 185 (Pulau Tekong).—C. Butler, 2017c: 71–72 (Venus Loop [WNP]).— Das, 2018: 109.—H.C. Ho et al., 2019: 125 (Alexandra Woodlands).—H.T.W. Tan et al., 2019: 129, 131, 134 (Kent Ridge Park; National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus).—K.Y. Tan et al., 2019: 247.—R.C.H. Teo & Thomas, 2019: 165, 181.— Charlton, 2020: 230.—K.K.P. Lim, 2020: 5 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).

Calliophis intestinalis lineatus — Chanhome et al., 2011: 317.

“Banded Malayan Coral Snake”—H.C. Ho et al., 2015: 21 (Alexandra Woodlands).—Mong & H.H. Tan, 2016: 266.

Calliophis intestinalis lineata — Cox et al., 2018: 67.

Remarks. Being a highly variable species, up to seven varieties of C. intestinalis were identified ( Boulenger 1896), yet most researchers followed the designations provided in Golay (1993) and recognised six subspecies. The different varieties spawned a taxonomic frenzy which led to numerous species being described from different localities (Taylor 1965). After three subspecies from the Philippines were elevated to species status (Leviton 2014), only three subspecies remained, with C. intestinalis lineata being the only one inhabiting Singapore (Golay et al. 1993).

Calliophis intestinalis was first reported from Singapore by Cantor (1839a) who described it as a new species, Elaps furcata ( Table 1 ). Sworder (1923) found C. intestinalis common in Singapore, and it was collected frequently early on (Peters 1859; Blanford 1881; Sclater 1891a; Boulenger 1896). Although Blanford (1881) examined specimens at the Raffles Museum, Ridley (1899) indicated that there were no specimens during his time in Singapore. As ZRC.2.3978 was collected on 11 May 1899 and ZRC. 2.4007 in June 1899, these must have been after Ridley (1899) already published his checklist. Flower (1896) recounted collecting two specimens from Tanglin, and Buddle (1929) collected one at SNB. LKCNHM has specimens from 1932, 1941, and 1948, and Cross (2020n) recorded several specimens in 1944 and 1945, but C. intestinalis was only next reported 32 years later ( Table 2 ) by Harman (1961). Shortly thereafter, Meers (1968) described a snake bite suffered by one military personnel from a C. intestinalis . After Lim & Lim (1988b) reported a dead specimen at SRF from 16 July 1988, C. intestinalis was reported numerous times up to the publication of Teo & Rajathurai (1997). Also after that time, numerous specimens were deposited at LKCNHM. Yet, Baker & Lim (2012) classified C. intestinalis as rare. Certainly, C. intestinalis is uncommon due to its secretive lifestyle, but given the number of reported records and personal observations, we do not consider it so rare. Recent reported observations include one found in a garden at NUS Kent Ridge on 21 September 2005 ( Fig. 22A ) ( Lim 2014b), four records from PT ( Lim et al. 2016), a carcass found in a phytotelma at WNP on 20 April 2017 (Butler 2017c), a record from Alexandra Woodlands (Ho et al. 2019) and records from KRP and NUS Kent Ridge (Tan et al. 2019).

Occurrence. Wide-ranging. Uncommon.

Singapore conservation status. Near-Threatened.

Conservation priority. Highest.

IUCN conservation status. Least Concern [2012].

LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. Singapore (no locality) : BMNH 1880.9.10.15–17 (no date), BMNH 1894.6 .25.12 (no date) , BMNH 1895.1 .8.10 (no date) [syntype of Calliophis intestinalis annectans ] , ZRC.2.3978 (11-May-1899) , ZRC.2.4005 (31-Oct-1932) ; Botanic Gardens: ZRC.2.4007 (Jun-1899) , ZRC.2.6298(09-Feb-1996) ; Bukit Kalang [ SRF] : ZRC.2.6702 (23-May-2008) ; Bukit Timah: ZRC.2.3989 (07-May-1948) , ZRC.2.3990 (05-Oct-1977) ; Cluny Park: ZRC.2.4370 (Sep-1941) ; Dairy Farm Quarry Stream [ DFNP] : ZRC.2.6211 (13-Sep-1995) ; Hindhede Drive: ZRC.2.6681 (05-Sep-2007) ; Island Club Road [ SICC] : ZRC.2.6080 (07-Aug-2004) ; Kent Ridge Campus [ NUS] : ZRC.2.2761 (17-Aug-1990) , ZRC.2.3373 (03-Nov-1992) , ZRC.2.6144 (21-Sep-2005) ; Kranji : ZRC.2.3977 (no date); Lornie Trail [ LF] : ZRC.2.6217 (20-May-2006) ; Lower Seletar Close : ZRC.2.6811 (06-Apr-2009) ; Nee Soon [ USRP] : ZRC.2.4014 (06-Aug-1989) ; Old Upper Thomson Road : ZRC.2.7062 (21-Mar-2014) ; Pulau Tekong Besar : ZRC.2.6041 (16-Apr-2004) , ZRC.2.6561 (12-Sep-2007) ; Singapore Island Country Club : ZRC.2.7106 (10-Jun-2013) ; Upper Peirce Reservoir Road : ZRC.2.6704 (10-Jun-2008) , ZRC.2.6913 (30- May-2010) , ZRC.2.7317 (05-Sep-2018) ; Upper Seletar Reservoir : ZRC.2.5434 (24-May-2002) ; Upper Seletar Reservoir Park : ZRC.2.6785 (07-Oct-2008) ; Upper Seletar Reservoir Road : ZRC.2.6716 (22- Jul-2008) .

Additional Singapore museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): ANSP, CAS, NMI, ZMB, ZMH; Botanic Gardens: BPBM; Bukit Timah: CAS; Eng Neo Avenue Forest: BPBM, MCZ; Leyden Hill: MCZ; Weyhill Close: UWBM.

Singapore localities. Alexandra Woodlands—Bukit Timah (not specified)—Bukit Timah Nature Reserve—Choa Chu Kang—Cluny Park—Dairy Farm Nature Park—Eng Neo Avenue Forest—Hindhede Drive—Kent Ridge Park—Leyden Hill—Lornie Forest—Lornie Road—Lower Peirce Forest—Lower Peirce Reservoir Park—Lower Seletar Close—MacRitchie (not specified)—National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus—Old Upper Thomson Road—Pulau Tekong—Rifle Range Road—Sembcorp Marine Ltd.—Sime Road Forest—Singapore Botanic Gardens—Singapore Island Country Club—Ulu Sembawang Forest— Upper Peirce Reservoir Road—Upper Peirce West Forest—Upper Seletar Reservoir—Upper Seletar Reservoir Park—Upper Seletar Reservoir Road—Weyhill Close—Windsor Nature Park.

Figures

FIGURE 22. A) Calliophis intestinalis, B) Hydrophis hardwickii, C) Hydrophis hardwickii, D) Hydrophis platurus, E) Hydrophis platurus, F) Hydrophis schistosus, G) Hydrophis schistosus, and H) Hydrophis spiralis. Photographs by: Kelvin K.P. Lim [A–B, D, F], Evan S.H. Quah [C, G], Alex Figueroa [E], and Sanjaya Bandara [H].