Uropeltis broughami

Uropeltis broughami'
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Uropeltis
Species: U. broughami
Binomial name
Uropeltis broughami
(Beddome, 1878)
Synonyms

Uropeltis broughami, commonly known as Brougham's earth snake or the Sirumallay Uropeltis, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. It is endemic to India.

Contents

Geographic range

It is found in southern India (Palni and Sirumalai Hills, Madura district; Nilgiris).

Type locality of Silybura broughami = "Sirumallay hills (Madura district), 5500 feet elevation".

Type locality of Silybura levingii = "Lower Pulney hills (Madura district), 4000 feet elevation".

Description

Dorsum brown, with transverse series of small yellow black-edged ocelli. Sides with series of large yellow spots. Ventrals dark brown.

The longest type specimen is 41 cm (16⅛ inches) in total length.

Dorsal scales in 19 rows. Ventrals 203-230; subcaudals 7-10.

Snout acutely pointed. Rostral laterally compressed, obtusely keeled above, two fifths the length of the shielded part of the head, the portion visible from above much longer than its distance from the frontal. Nasals in contact with each other behind the rostral. Frontal as long as broad, or slightly longer than broad. Eye very small, not half the length of the ocular. Diameter of body 34 to 40 times in the total length. Ventrals not twice as broad as the contiguous dorsal scales. Tail obliquely truncate, flat above, with strongly pluricarinate scales; terminal scute bicuspid.[2]

Footnotes

  1. ^ The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. ^ Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Uropeltidæ... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. pp. 152-153, Plate VII, fig. 2.

Further reading

  • Beddome, R.H. 1878. Description of six new Species of Snakes of the Genus Silybura, family Uropeltidæ, from the Peninsula of India. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1878: 800-802.
  • Beddome, R.H. 1886. An Account of the Earth-Snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 17: 3-33.

External links