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Platyplectrurus madurensis BEDDOME, 1877

IUCN Red List - Platyplectrurus madurensis - Endangered, EN
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Higher TaxaUropeltidae, Henophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
SubspeciesPlatyplectrurus madurensis madurensis BEDDOME 1877
Platyplectrurus madurensis ruhunae DERANIYAGALA 1954 
Common NamesE: Travancore Hills Thorntail Snake 
SynonymPlatyplectrurus madurensis madurensis BEDDOME 1877
Platyplectrurus madurensis BEDDOME 1877
Platyplectrurus madurensis — BEDDOME 1886: 33
Platyplectrurus madurensis — BOETTGER 1892: 78
Platyplectrurus madurensis — BOULENGER 1893: 166
Wallia inexpectata WERNER 1925 (fide SMITH 1928)
Platyplectrurus madurensis — SMITH 1943: 69
Platyplectrurus madurensis — GANS 1966: 10
Platyplectrurus madurensis — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 132
Platyplectrurus madurensis — DAS 2003
Platyplectrurus madurensis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 568

Platyplectrurus madurensis ruhunae DERANIYAGALA 1954
Plectrurus ruhunae DERANIYAGLA 1954
Platyplectrurus madurensis ruhunae — GANS 1966: 11
Platyplectrurus madurensis ruhane — KADAMBY 1997 
DistributionS India (Kerala), Sri Lanka

Type locality: "About Kodiukarnal on the Pulney Mountains (Madura district), 6000 feet elevation" [BEDDOME 1877]

Type locality: „Südindien (Pulney Hills, Madura)" [WERNER 1925]

ruhunae: Sri Lanka; Type locality: „Galle", district in the Southern Province, Ceylon [DERANIYAGALA 1954]  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1946.1.15.64 (formerly 83.1.12.52), 1946.1.15.78 (formerly 83.1.12.56) — 1946.1.15.80 (formerly 83.1.12.58); MNHN 95.115 (2 specimens).
Holotype: NMW 18511 [Wallia inexpectata WERNER 1925]
Holotype: NMSL (= CNM) R. S. 51 [ruhunae] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Differs from the Indian D. madurensis in color the number of ventrals and relative proportions of the cephalic scales.


Additional details (967 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy partly after Wallach 1988, Amphibia-Reptilia 9: 2.

Original description (ruhunae): Color: dorsally chocolate brown, supralabials light grey, infralabials each with a light grey spot, ventrals with a light centre and wide chocolate margin, the longitudinal rows of three costals on each side, of them with a large light spot in each scale. These rows of spots are reduced to one on the tail.
Scales: one supraocular, postocular and temporal, nasal entire, supralabials 4, the third suborbital, Costals 15.15.15, ventrals 1 subcaudals 10, biserial, terminal caudal scute subconical. 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality.

P. (m.) ruhunae is named after a place or region in Sri Lanka. 
References
  • Beddome, R.H. 1877. Descriptions of three new snakes of the family Uropeltidae from Southern India. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1877: 167-168. - get paper here
  • 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. - get paper here
  • Boettger, O. 1892. Listen von Kriechtieren und Lurchen aus dem tropischen Asien und aus Papuasien. Ber. Tät. Offenb. Ver. Nat., Offenbach, 29 - 32: 65 - 164 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. London (Taylor & Francis), 448 pp. - get paper here
  • Das, Indraneil 2003. Growth of Knowledge on the Reptiles of India, with an Introduction to Systematics, Taxonomy and Nomenclature. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 100 (2-3): 446-502 - get paper here
  • Deraniyagala. PAUL E. PIERIS 1954. Two new snakes from Ceylon. Proc. 10th Congr. Ceylon Assoc. Advancem. Sci., 1: 24.
  • Deraniyagala. PAUL E. PIERIS 1955. A colored atlas of some vertebrates from Ceylon. Vol. 3. Serpentoid Reptilia. Colombo, xix + 121 pp. - get paper here
  • Gans, C. 1966. Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien. Uropeltidae. Das Tierreich Lfg. 84, 29 pp.
  • Gemel, R.; G. Gassner & S. Schweiger 2019. Katalog der Typen der Herpetologischen Sammlung des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien – 2018. Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, B 121: 33–248
  • Kandamby, DharmaSri 1997. Herpetological types reposed in the National Museum Colombo, Sri Lanka. Lyriocephalus 3 (1): 31-33
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here
  • Pyron R. A., Ganesh S. R., Sayyed A., Sharma V., Wallach V. & Somaweera R. 2016. A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae). [type catalogue] Zoosystema 38 (4): 453-506 - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
  • Smith, M.A. 1928. The status of some recently described genera and species of snakes. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (10) 1: 494-496 - get paper here
  • Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Werner. F. 1925. Neue oder wenig bekannte Schlangen aus dem Naturhistorischen Staatsmuseum in Wien. II. Teil. Sitzungsb. Akad. Wiss., Wien, Abt. l, 134: 45 - 66 - get paper here
  • Williams, Ernest E. 1959. The occipito-vertebral joint in the burrowing snakes of the family Uropeltidae. Breviora (106): 1-10 - get paper here
 
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