You are here » home advanced search search results Oligodon transcaspicus

Oligodon transcaspicus (NIKOLSKY, 1903)

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Oligodon transcaspicus?

Add your own observation of
Oligodon transcaspicus »

We have no photos, try to find some by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Streaked Kukuri Snake
G: Gestreifte Kukrinatter 
SynonymContia transcaspica NIKOLSKY 1903
Oligodon taeniolatus — CHERNOV 1935: 351 (in part)
Oligodon taeniolatus — FILIPPOV 1947 (in part)
Oligodon taeniolatus — RAJABIZADEH 2018: 242 (in part)
Oligodon transcaspicus — LEE et al. 2023 
DistributionS Turkmenistan (SW Kopet-Dag), N Iran

Type locality: “Kopet-Dag, Transcaspia” (now Köpet–Dag Mountain Range, near Ashgabat, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan)  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: ZISP 9868 collected by N. Kinschin in 1901 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A kukri snake in the genus Oligodon that is distinguished from all other congeners by the following combination of morphological characters: (1) 7–9 maxillary teeth, with the posterior two teeth enlarged and blade-like; (2) dorsal scales in 15–15–15 rows; (3) cloacal plate divided; (4) ventral scales 179–188 in males, 193–214 in females; (5) subcaudals 48–52 in males, 44–51 in females; (6) total body scales 232–240 in males, 240–266 in females (232–266 scales combined); (7) subcaudal ratio 0.203–0.224 in males, 0.177–192 in females; (8) almost always five supralabials (sometimes six according to Latifi, 1991), with only the 3rd supralabial contacting the orbit; (9) loreal and preocular scales present, presubocular sometimes present; (10) posterior temporal scales three (rarely 2), with the lowest temporal causing 4th and 5th supralabial to contact narrowly; (11) dorsal color pattern beige or light brown with of 42–57 dark transverse crossbars on body and 12–17 crossbars on the tail; (12) dorsal color pattern on tail resembling the rest of the body, with no vertebral stripe. (Lee et al. 2023)


Additional details (4378 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSimilar species: Has been confused and synonymized with O. taeniolatus.

Distribution: see map in Lee et al. 2023: 5 (Fig. 1)

Synonymy: Contia transcaspica NIKOLSKY 1903 has been resurrected from the synonymy of O. taeniolatus by Lee et al. 2023. Note that the resurrection is apparently based on DNA sequences from a single specimen from Iran. 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality; transcaspica [= transcaspian], comes from Latin trāns "across, on the far side, beyond" + caspica "Caspian Sea". 
References
  • Chernov, Sergius A. 1935. Two specimens of the genus Oligodon (Ophidia, Colubridaae) in the Soviet Union. Comptes Rendus (Doklady) de l'Academie des Sciences de l'URSS 1: 348-352
  • Filippov MN. 1947. On zoogeography of the TSSR. (in Russian) Transactions of the Ashkhabad State Pedagogical Institute 2: 95-97
  • Lee JL, Yushchenko PV, Milto KD, Rajabizadeh M, Rastegar Pouyani E, Jablonski D, Masroor R, Karunarathna S, Mallik AK, Dsouza P, Orlov N, Nazarov R, Poyarkov NA. 2023. Kukri snakes Oligodon Fitzinger, 1826 of the Western Palearctic with the resurrection of Contia transcaspica Nikolsky, 1902 (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae). PeerJ 11:e15185 DOI 10.7717/peerj.15185
  • Nikolsky, A. M. 1903. Contia transcaspica n. sp. (Ophidia, Colubridae). Annuaire du Musée Zoologique de l’Académie des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg 8(1):11–13 (in Russian and Latin, with French titles) - get paper here
  • Rajabizadeh, M. 2018. Snakes of Iran. [in Farsi] Tehran: Iranshenasi, 496 pp. [2017 ?] - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:

As link to this species use URL address:

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Oligodon&species=transcaspicus

without field 'search_param'. Field 'search_param' is used for browsing search result.



Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator