Uropeltis myhendrae ( Beddome, 1886 )

Pyron, Robert Alexander, Ganesh, Sumaithangi Rajagopalan, Sayyed, Amit, Sharma, Vivek, Wallach, Van & Somaweera, Ruchira, 2016, A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae), Zoosystema 38 (4), pp. 453-506 : 494

Uropeltis myhendrae ( Beddome, 1886)

Silybura nilgherriensis myhendrae Beddome, 1886: 15 . Recognized as a full species by Boulenger (1893a).

TYPE MATERIAL. — Two syntypes: BMNH 1883.1.12.49 (= 1946.1.16.9) and MNHN-RA-1895.95.

TYPE LOCALITY. — Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu state, India.

DISTRIBUTION. — Definitively known only from the Agasthyamalai hills of India, South of the Sencotta Gap, at elevations c. 600-1200 m ( Ferguson 1895, 1902; Wallach et al. 2014; Ganesh 2015).

DESCRIPTION

Maximum total size c. 540 mm, ventrals 139-156, subcaudals 6-8, dorsal scales in 17 rows at midbody ( Smith 1943; Rajendran 1985). The rostral resembles the Rhinophis- type “boomerang” condition and we classify it as “Alternate Pointed”, but the tail is firmly Smith’s (1943) state II (our Type V), resembling that of U. ceylanica and others, being sharply truncated at a c. 45° angle, with flattened, enlarged, bi- or tricarinate shield scales. Distinctive but variable color-pattern, with a dark brown or black dorsal and ventral coloration, triangular incomplete crossbands of yellow partially ringing the body, with black stippling in the yellow crossbands. The BMNH syntype is relatively patternless. The single specimen dissected had a larger number of tracheal rings (353) than any other uropeltid specimen examined (mean of 197), and any other Uropeltis species (mean of 212). Only the specimen of U. grandis also had more than 300 (336).

REMARKS

A specimen examined here (MNHN-RA-1897.255) was considered a possible type by McDiarmid et al. (1999), but is from another locality in the Punga hills, and has a much stronger color pattern than the relatively patternless syntype BMNH 1946.1.16.9. This is a rarely encountered species that is known only from a few scattered collections (see Rajendran 1985).