Thermophis baileyi

Bailey's snake
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Subfamily: incertae sedis
Genus: Thermophis
Species: T. baileyi
Binomial name
Thermophis baileyi
(Wall, 1907)
Synonyms
  • Tropidonotus baileyi Wall, 1907
  • Natrix baileyi - Malnate, 1953
  • Thermophis baileyi - Malnate, 1953[2]

Thermophis baileyi, also known as "Bailey's snake" or the "hot-spring keel-back"[3], is a rare species of colubrid snake.

Contents

Geographic range

It is found only at high altitudes (14,000 feet = 4,267 m) in the mountains of Tibet near two hot springs.[4][5][6]

Description

Thermophis baileyi is olive green, with five series of indistinct spots dorsally, most pronounced in the forebody. It has a dusky postocular streak, and dusky posterior edges to the labials. The belly is bluish-grey, with each ventral black basally. The young are darker than adults.

Dorsal scales in 19 rows, all keeled except last row, with indistinct double apical facets. Ventrals 201-221; anal divided; subcaudals 91-111, mostly divided, but with a few entire.

Adults may attain a total length of 2 feet 6 inches (76 cm).[4]

Conservation status

Bailey's snake is on the endangered species list.[7][8][9]

Taxonomy

The existence of Bailey's snake was first announced in the scientific literature in 1907, when it was described as a new species by Frank Wall.[4][10] Wall originally classified it as Tropodinotus (=Natrix) baileyi, before it was realized that Bailey's snake did not fit in the genus Natrix. In 1953 Malnate placed it in the new genus Thermophis, designating baileyi as the type species.[5]

Habitat

All specimens found appear to live within about 1 km of a hot spring known as Chutsen Chugang Hot Springs, on the grounds of the Zhoto Terdrom / Tidro Nunnery in Maldrogongkar / Mozhugongka County, near Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region at an altitude of 4350 m. There also has been a report of Bailey's snakes near the Yangpachen/Yangbajain Hot Springs, at about the same altitude in Maldrogongkar County, Tibet Autonomous Region.

This genus of snakes lives at the highest altitude of any snake in the world.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Thermophis baileyi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2007. International Union for Conservation of Nature. 1996. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/21736. Retrieved 01 June 2008. 
  2. ^ The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  3. ^ "Hot-spring keel-back" is the translation of the Chinese name.
  4. ^ a b c Wall, Frank. Some new Asian snakes. Jour. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 1907, 17 (3): 612-618
  5. ^ a b The Taxonomic Status of the Tibetan Colubrid Snake Natrix baileyi, Edmond V. Malnate, Copeia, Vol. 1953, No. 2 (May 29, 1953), pp. 92-96 doi:10.2307/1440132
  6. ^ Zhao E.M. Thermophis baileyi. In: E.M. Zhao, et al. Fauna Sinica, Reptilia, vol. 3, Serpentes. Science Press, Beijing, 1998: 318-320.
  7. ^ Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
  8. ^ IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1988. 1988 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.
  9. ^ IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
  10. ^ Discovery of Thermophis baileyi(Wall,1907), A Snake Endemic to Xizang AR, from Litang County, Sichuan, China, 刘少英　 赵尔宓　, SICHUAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY 2004 Vol.23 No.3 P.234-235
  11. ^ "Tibet". Bernard Hill (narrator). Wild China. BBC. BBC Two. 25 May 2008. 13:00 minutes in. Retrieved on 24 November 2011.