Coluber bholanathi

Nagarjunsagar Racer
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Subfamily: Colubrinae
Genus: Coluber
Species: C. bholanathi
Binomial name
Coluber bholanathi
Sharma, 1976

Nagarjun Sagar Racer, (also known as Sharma's Racer)[1] Coluber bholanathi, is a species of colubrid snake, found in peninsular India, in the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan plateau. It is a diurnal, fast-moving, active snake, living among rock boulders. It feeds on lizards, small mammals, and birds. It is a rather recently described species, that was first discovered in 1976, in the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam by scientists of the Zoological Survey of India.

Description

A slender snake; rich brown above with white, black-edged rounded or ovoid spots on the back; underside white; dorsal scales in 19:19:12-15 rows around body, ventrals 202–212; subcaudals 109–121.

Distribution

This species is known from Nagarjuna Sagar Dam in Telangana, Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Bellary in Karnataka and Gingee and Hosur in Tamil Nadu, essentially covering all of the rocky hillocks and outcrops in south India.

References

  1. "Nagarjun Sagar Racer Coluber bholanathi". ndian Snakes Database. Retrieved March 22, 2013.