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Ahaetulla pulverulenta (DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL, 1854)

IUCN Red List - Ahaetulla pulverulenta - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae, Ahaetuliinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Brown-speckled Whipsnake 
SynonymDryinus pulverulentus DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 812
Dryinus fuscus DUMÉRIL et al. 1854 (part)
Dryophis pulverulentus JAN 1863
Passerita purpurascens GÜNTHER 1864 (fide SMITH 1943)
Dryophis pulverulentus — BOULENGER 1890: 371
Dryophis pulverulentus — WALL 1921: 302
Dryophis pulverulentus — SMITH 1943: 378
Dryophis pulverulenta xanthiscutata DERANIYAGALA 1955
Dryophis pulverulenta indica DERANIYAGALA 1955
Dryophis pulverulenta — SHARMA 1976
Ahaetulla pulverulentus — DAS 1996: 53
Ahaetulla pulverulentus — SHARMA 2004
Ahaetulla pulverulenta — WALLACH et al. 2014: 21
Ahaetulla pulverulenta — MALLIK et al. 2020 
DistributionSri Lanka

Type locality: Sri Lanka  
Reproductionovoviviparous (5-15 live offspring) 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 7565 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: This is a species of usually grey-brown coloured Ahaetulla having an elongate multi-scaled rostral appendage and a rhomboid crown marking (vs. rostral scale not multi-scaled in all other Peninsular India Ahaetulla spp., except A. anomala and A. sahyadrensis nom. nov.); lacking white or yellow ventrolateral stripe (vs. present in all regional congeners except A. sahyadrensis nom. nov.); 8 pre-diastemal and 7 post-diastemal maxillary teeth (vs. 7 and 9 in A. isabellina comb. nov., 6 and 7 in A. malabarica sp. nov., vs. 6 and 11 in A. farnsworthi sp. nov., vs. 6 and 8 in A. borealis sp. nov., vs. 7 and 7 in A. oxyrhyncha comb. nov. & 7 and 6 in A. sahyadrensis nom. nov. from India, dissected from BNHS 2010); differs from A. sahyadrensis nom. nov. of India in ventral scale counts 179–193 [182–186 in BNHS specimens] (vs. 182–203 [186–202 in our study] in A. sahyadrensis nom. nov.) and subcaudal scale counts 151–178 [158–159 in BNHS specimens] (vs. 169–208 [175–208 in our study] in A. sahyadrensis nom. nov.); lower posterior dorsal scale rows count 10–11 (vs. 12–13 in A. sahyadrensis nom. nov.) (Fig. 11 & 12, Table 2, Mallik et al. 2020: 22).


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CommentSynonymy: partly after WALLACH et al. 2014: 21, Mallik et la. 2020).

Diet: lizards and other vertebrates

Distribution: see map in Deepak e al. 2019: 499 (Fig. 1) and Mallik et al. 2020: 14 (Fig. 4). Reports from Gujarat are probably misidentifications of A. pulverulenta (Vyas, 1988, Patel & Vyas 2019). Mallik et al. 2020 restricted pulverulenta to Sri Lanka and assigned populations from S India to A. sahyadrensis, a similar and closely related species.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018).

Genome: Ruchira et al. 2025. 
EtymologyFrom Latin, named after its ‘ashy’ or ‘dusty’ greyish brown colouration. 
References
  • Ahmad, Faysal, Shayer Mahmood Ibney Alam and Tania Khondakar. 2015. Geographic Distribution: Ahaetulla pulverulenta (brown vine snake). Herpetological Review 46 (4): 571 - get paper here
  • Bhupathy, Subramanian & N. Sathishkumar 2013. Status of reptiles in Meghamalai and its environs, Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5 (15): 4953-4961 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1896. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum, Vol. 3. London (Taylor & Francis), xiv + 727 pp. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, George A. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp. - get paper here
  • Constable, JOHN D. 1949. Reptiles from the Indian Peninsula in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 103: 59-160. - get paper here
  • Das, I. & De Silva, A. 2005. Photographic guide to snakes and other reptiles of Sri Lanka. New Holland Publishers, 144 pp.
  • David, P. & Dubois, A. 2005. Découverte et redescription de l’holotype d’Ahaetulla pulverulenta (Dumérl, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) (Reptilia, Serpentes, Colubridae), avec une remarque sur le statut de Dryinus fuscus Dumérl, Bibron & Duméril, 1854. Zoosystema 27 (1): 163-178
  • de Silva, A. 1998. Snakes of Sri Lanka: a checklist and an annotated bibliography. Dept. Wildlife Conservation/ GEF /UNDP/ FAO, Colombo.
  • de Silva, A. 2001. Die Herpetofauna Sri Lankas. Monasteria, 91 pp.
  • Deepak, V., Narayanan, S., Sarkar, V., Dutta, S. K. & Mohapatra, P. P. 2019. A new species of Ahaetulla Link, 1807 (Serpentes: Colubridae: Ahaetullinae) from India. J. Nat. Hist. 53: 497–516 - get paper here
  • Deraniyagala. PAUL E. PIERIS 1955. A colored atlas of some vertebrates from Ceylon. Vol. 3. Serpentoid Reptilia. Colombo, xix + 121 pp. - get paper here
  • Duméril, A. M. C., Bibron, G. & DUMÉRIL, A. H. A., 1854. Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Deuxième partie, comprenant l'histoire des serpents venimeux. Paris, Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret: i-xii + 781-1536 - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Janzen, P.; Klaas, P. & Ziesmann, S. 2007. Sri Lankas Schlangenfauna. Draco 7 (30): 56-64 - get paper here
  • Kandamby, DharmaSri 1997. Herpetological types reposed in the National Museum Colombo, Sri Lanka. Lyriocephalus 3 (1): 31-33
  • Karunarathna, Suranjan D. M. S. and A. A. Thasun Amarasinghe 2011. A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE REPTILE FAUNA IN NILGALA FOREST AND ITS VICINITY, MONARAGALA DISTRICT, SRI LANKA. Taprobanica 3 (2): 69-76 - get paper here
  • Khaire, A.; Khaire, N. 1993. Occurrence of brown whip snake Ahaetulla pulverulenta (Dum. & Bibr.) in Pune, India. The Snake 25: 147-148
  • Madawala, Majintha; Thilina D Surasinghe, Anslem De Silva, Dinesh Gabadage, Madhava Botejue, Indika Peabotuwage, Dushantha Kandambi, Suranjan Karunarathna 2019. Reappraisal of Herpetofauna Recorded from Jaffna Peninsula in Northern Sri Lanka with Remarks on Conservation, Diversity, and Distribution. Russ. J. Herpetol. 26 (5): 247-260 - get paper here
  • MALLIK, A. K., SRIKANTHAN, A. N., PAL, S. P., D’SOUZA, P. M., SHANKER, K., & GANESH, S. R. 2020. Disentangling vines: a study of morphological crypsis and genetic divergence in vine snakes (Squamata: Colubridae: Ahaetulla) with the description of five new species from Peninsular India. Zootaxa 4874 (1): 1-62 - get paper here
  • Neumann-Denzau, Gertrud and Helmut Denzau 2010. The Brown vine snake Ahaetulla pulverulenta (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh – first record from the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Herpetology Notes 3: 271- 272
  • Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here
  • Patel, Harshil; and Raju Vyas 2019. Reptiles of Gujarat, India: Updated Checklist, Distribution, and Conservation Status. Herpetology Notes 12: 765-777 - get paper here
  • Pauwels, O.S.G.; David, P.; Chimsunchart, C. & Thirakhupt, K. 2003. Reptiles of Phetchaburi Province, Western Thailand: a list of species, with natural history notes, and a discussion on the biogeography at the Isthmus of Kra. Natural History Journal of Chulalongkorn University 3 (1): 23-53 - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 1976. Records of the reptiles of Goa. Records Zool. Survey India 71 (1975): 149-167. - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
  • 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.
  • Somaweera, R., Pirro, S., & Pyron, R. A. 2025. The Complete Genome Sequences of 26 Species of Sri Lankan Snakes. Biodiversity Genomes - get paper here
  • Sujeet Jamdar, S. 2025. Checklist of snakes (Reptilia: Squamata) in Tala Tahsil of Raigad, Maharashtra, India. International Research Journal of Science and Technology, 3(1), 444–452 - get paper here
  • Venkatraman, C.;Gokula, V.;Kumar, Saravana 1997. Occurrence of brown whip snake (Ahaetulla pulverulenta) in Siruvani foot hills. Cobra 28: 36-37
  • Vyas, Raju 2007. Herpetofauna of Puma Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat, India. Reptile Rap (8): 10-15 - get paper here
  • Vyas, Raju 2007. Present conservation scenario of reptile fauna in Gujarat State, India. Indian Forester, Oct 2007: 1381-1394 - get paper here
  • Wall, FRANK 1921. Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon. Colombo Mus. (H. R. Cottle, govt. printer), Colombo. xxii, 581 pages - get paper here
  • Wall,F. 1913. Notes on some interesting snakes recently presented to the Society. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 22: 639 - get paper here
  • 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.
  • Whitaker, Romulus and Ashok Captain 2004. Snakes of India. Draco Books, 500 pp., reprinted 2007 - get paper here
 
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