| 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].
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| 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). |
| 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
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