Ahaetulla flavescens (WALL, 1910)
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Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Ahaetuliinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
Subspecies | |
Common Names | E: Yellow whip snake G: Gelbe Peitschennatter |
Synonym | Dryophis prasinus flavescens WALL 1910: 834 Dryophis prasinus indicus MELL 1931: 119–219 (by implication) Dryophis prasina – GÜNTHER 1858: 159 (part) Tragops prasinus – GÜNTHER 1864: 364 Tragops prasinus – THEOBALD 1876: 191 Dryophis prasinus – BOULENGER 1890: 369 Dryophis prasinus – BOULENGER 1896: 180 (part) Dryophis prasinus ‘forma typica’ – WALL 1909: 354 (non H. Boie in F. Boie, 1827) Dryophis prasinus ‘forma typica’ – WALL 1909: 898 (non H. Boie in F. Boie, 1827) Dryophis prasinus ‘forma typica’ – WALL 1910: 834 (non H. Boie in F. Boie, 1827) Dryophis prasinus flavescens – WALL 1910: 834 (nec Smith, 1914) Ahaetulla flavescens — SRIKANTHAN et al. 2022 Ahaetulla flavescens — MALSAWMDAWNGLIANA et al. 2022 |
Distribution | India (Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram), Bhutan Myanmar (= Burma), Lectotype locality: Lakimpur, Assam, Northeast India”; 27°13’40.8’’ N, 94°6’28.8’’ E. |
Reproduction | ovovivparous |
Types | Syntype: NHMUK (= BMNH) 1908.6.23.58, female, designated by Srikanthan et al. 2022. Paralectotype: NHMUK (= BMNH) 1908.6.23.59, female. |
Diagnosis | Diagnosis: “A species of Ahaetulla inhabiting Northeast India, defined by the following combination of characters: dorsal scales in 15:15:11–13 smooth rows (vs 13 midbody rows of keeled scales in Proahaetulla Link, 1807); rostral appendage absent (vs present in the A. nasuta group and A. pulverulenta groups); presence of a pair of white ventrolateral stripes throughout the body (vs absence of ventrolateral stripes in the A. pulverulenta group); dorsum usually greenish (vs usually brownish in both sexes in the A. pulverulenta and A. laudankia groups; usually brown in females, in A. anomala (Annandale, 1906), A. perrotetii (Duméril & Bibron, 1854), A. dispar (Günther, 1864) and A. travancorica Mallik, Srikanthan, Pal, D’Souza, Shanker & Ganesh, 2020); crown uniform and unpatterned (vs crown with black markings and reticulations in A. anomala, A. laudankia Deepak, Narayanan, Sarkar, Dutta & Mohapatra, 2019 and A. fasciolata); ventrals 194–200 (vs < 190 in A. nasuta and A. pulverulenta groups); subcaudals 155–168 (vs < 120 in A. perrotetii, A. dispar and A. travancorica); cloacal scale paired (vs entire in A. mycterizans and A. fasciolata); supralabials entire (vs 3rd–4th supralabials horizontally divided in A. fronticincta); nasals not in contact with one another (vs in contact with one another above rostral in A. fronticincta); upper snout surface flat to mildly depressed (vs convex in A. mycterizans); 8.2–10% divergent in ND4 and 6.5–9.5% in Cytb gene from the SE Asian populations of A. prasina sensu lato.” (Srikanthan et al. 2022) Additional details (597 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
Comment | Synonymy after Srikanthan et al. 2022 who revalidated it from the synonymy of A. prasina. Distribution: see map in Srikanthan et al. 2022: . Behavior: diurnal. Venomous. Mildly venomous but usually harmless for humans. Habitat: fully arboreal (Srikanthan et al. 2022). |
Etymology | Named after the Latin verb ‘flavesco / flavescre’, meaning ‘turning to yellow’ / ‘becoming yellow’, referring to the yellowish colouration of the type specimens in life. |
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