Ahaetulla dispar (GÜNTHER, 1864)

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Higher Taxa	Colubridae, Ahaetuliinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Indian Bronzeback, Günther's Vine Snake
Synonym	Tragops dispar GÜNTHER 1864: 303 Dryophis dispar — BOULENGER 1890: 368 Dryophis dispar — SMITH 1943: 373 Ahaetulla dispar — SAVAGE 1952 Ahaetulla dispar — DAS 1996: 53 Ahaetulla dispar — WALLACH et al. 2014: 19 Ahaetulla dispar — MALLIK et al. 2020: 40
Distribution	India (Western Ghats, Kerala, Tamil Nadu ?), elevation > 1400 m Type locality: “Anamallay Mountains, British India” [= Anamalai Hills, S Western Ghats, E Kerala / W Tamil Nadu States, SW India, ca. 10°22’N, 77°08’E].
Reproduction	ovovivparous
Types	Types: BMNH 1946.1.9.37-42 (and possibly additional specimens).
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: Ahaetulla dispar differs from Ahaetulla travancorica sp. nov. by possessing 0–1 loreals on each side of the head as compared to 2 loreals in Ahaetulla travancorica sp. nov., 9 infralabials in A. dispar (vs. 7–8 in Ahaetulla travancorica sp. nov.), no keels on the dorsal row of scales (vs. mild keels present) (Fig. 21, Mallik et al. 2020). Additional details (1278 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	The original description is available online (see references). Venomous: Mildly venomous but usually harmless for humans.
Etymology	Named after its disparate colouration, a sexually dichromatic species with green males and predominantly brown adult females (one of the earliest known dichromatic snakes, see Günther, 1864; Darwin 1871 contra Mohapatra et al. 2017).
References	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 Ganesh, S. R.; Subramanian Bhupathy, Patrick David, N. Sathishkumar, G. Srinivas 2014. Snake Fauna of High Wavy Mountains, Western Ghats, India: Species Richness, Status, and Distribution Pattern. Russ. J. Herpetol. 21 (1): 53-64 Ganesh, S.R.; S. Bhupathy, P. Karthik, G. Babu Rao & S. Babu 2020. Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India. JoTT 12 (9): 16123–16135 - get paper here Günther, A. 1864. The Reptiles of British India. London (Taylor & Francis), xxvii + 452 pp. - get paper here Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here Savage, Jay M. 1952. Two centuries of confusion: the history of the snake name Ahaetulla. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 9 (11): 203-216 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. Wall, F. 1906. A Popular Treatise on the Common Indian Snakes. Part II. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 17: 1-17 - 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
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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