Trinket Snake | |
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Trinket Snake from North Bengal, India | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Serpentes |
Family: | Colubridae |
Subfamily: | Colubrinae |
Genus: | Coelognathus |
Species: | C. helenus |
Binomial name | |
Coelognathus helenus (Daudin, 1803) |
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Synonyms | |
Trinket Snake, Coelognathus helenus, is a non-venomous constrictor species of colubrid snake native to south Central Asia.
Contents |
Sri Lanka, Southern India, Pakistan (Sind), Nepal, Bangladesh Type locality: India: Vishakhapatnam (Daudin, 1803).
Rostral a little broader than deep, visible from above; suture between the internasals much shorter than that between the prefrontals; frontal as long as its distance from the end of the snout, shorter than the parietals; loreal somewhat longer than deep; one large preocular; two postoculars; temporals 2+2 or 2+3: 9 (exceptionally 10 or 11) upper labials, fifth and sixth, or fourth, firth, and sixth entering the eye; 5 or 6 lower labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields, which are as long as or a little longer than the posterior. Scales in 23 to 27 rows, smooth, or feebly keeled on the posterior part of the body and on the tail. Ventrals 220-265; anal entire; subcaudals 75-94. Young pale brown above, with black cross bands, each enclosing four to six white ocelli; adult darker brown, with transverse series of squarish black spots, or with more or less distinct traces of the livery of the young; a vertical black streak below the eye, and an oblique one behind the eye; some specimens have a white, black-edged collar, others two black longitudinal streaks on the head; others, again, are intermediate in this respect. Lower parts yellowish, with or without a few small black spots, sometimes with a more or less distinct festooned marking on each side.[1] Total length 4.5 feet; tail 10 inches.
Elaphe helena monticollaris is a subspecies.