Lycodon fasciatus

banded wolf snake
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Subfamily:	Colubrinae
Genus:	Lycodon
Species:	L. fasciatus
Binomial name
*Lycodon fasciatus* (Anderson, 1879)
Synonyms
Ophites fasciatus Anderson, 1879 Lycodon fasciatus - Boulenger, 1890 Dinodon yunnanensis Werner, 1922 Lycodon fasciatus - Smith, 1943^[1]^[2]

The banded wolf snake, Lycodon fasciatus, is a species of colubrid snake.

Distribution

It is found in India (Assam), Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, SW China (from Yunnan and Guangxi to Hubei, northward to Shaanxi and gansu, Fujian, Sichuan)

Description

Adults may attain 53 cm (21 inches) in total length, with a tail 11cm (4¼ inches) long. Its color pattern consists of broad purplish-black rings which encircle its body and are separated by yellowish or reddish intervals. The first black ring does not encircle the neck. The dorsal scales are in 17 rows, weakly keeled anteriorly, the keels becoming more pronounced posteriorly. The ventrals are 205-213; the anal is entire; and the divided subcaudals are 77-90.^[3]

References

^ Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), Volume I. London.
^ The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
^ Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History), Volume I. London.

Anderson, John. 1879. Anatomical and Zoological Researches: Comprising an Account of the Zoological Results of the Two Expeditions to Western Yunnan in 1866 and 1875; and a Monograph of the Two Cetacean Genera Platanista and Orcella. Bernard Quaritch, London "1878". Two volumes (Text: 985 pages [herpetology: pages 703-860, 969-975]; Atlas: 85 plates [herpetological plates 55-78, 75A, 75B]).
Boulenger, George A. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp.
Daltry, J.C. & Wüster, W. 2002. A new species of Wolf Snake (Serpentes: Colubridae: Lycodon) from the Cardamom Mountains, Southwestern Cambodia. Herpetologica 58 (4): 498-504.