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Lycodon bicolor (NIKOLSKY, 1903)

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Mackinnon's Wolf Snake 
SynonymContia bicolor NIKOLSKY 1903: 96
Lycodon mackinnoni WALL 1906
Ophites mackinnoni — WALL 1923: 614
Lycodon mackinnoni — SMITH 1943: 263
Lycodon striatus nordicus DERANIYAGALA 1955 (fide LANZA 1999)
Lycodon mackinnoni — LANZA 1999: 99
Lycodon mackinnoni — WALLACH et al. 2014: 395
Lycodon mackinnoni — JABLONSKI et al. 2019
Lycodon bicolor — AMARASINGHE et al. 2023 
DistributionPakistan (KHAN 2002), India (Uttar Pradesh), Iran, Afghanistan

mackinnoni: India (Uttar Pradesh), NE Pakistan; Type locality: “neighbourhood of Mussoorie, Himalayas, at an altitude of 6,100 feet” [= Mussoorie, Uttar Pradesh, N India, 30°27’N, 78°04’E, elevation 1900 m].

Type locality: Kulkulab, Transcaspia (Kurkulab; 38°21′13.83′′N, 57°23′16.08′′E, datum = WGS84; 280m above sea level), Turkmenistan (ZISP 10013) and ‘Eastern Persia’ (eastern Iran) (ZISP 10006).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: ZISP 10006, juvenile male, given as ZIL, collected by Zarudny in 1901, ZIL 10013, collected by Bilkewitsch in 1902 (ZISP 10013 has a damaged head).
Type: BMNH 1946.1.13.81 (and possibly additional specimens) [mackinnoni] 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 4223 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy: Lycodon mackinnoni has been variably considered as a valid species or a synonym of L. bicolor. Amarasinghe et al. 2023 considered Lycodon mackinnoni as a color morph of bicolor with very low genetic distance between the two, hence we follow that argument and treat mackinnoni as a synonym of bicolor (see description and Fig. 4 in Amarasinghe et al. 2023).

Distribution: see map in Amarasinghe et al. 2023: 9 (Fig. 2) 
EtymologyNamed after Latin bicolor, of two colors. 
References
  • Amarasinghe, A. A. T., Masroor, R., Lalremsanga, H. T., Weerakkody, S., Ananjeva, N. B., Campbell, P. D., Kennedy-Gold, S. R., Bandara, S. K., Bragin, A. M., Gayan, A. K. A., Sharma, V. R., Sayyed, A., Biakzuala, L., Kanishka, A. S., Ganesh, S. R., I 2023. Integrative approach resolves the systematics of barred wolf snakes in the Lycodon striatus complex (Reptilia, Colubridae). Zoologica Scripta, 52, 370– 393 - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Faiz A. ul H., Abbas-I-Fakhar, Bagaturov M. F., Zahra L., Hassan ul M., Akahter T. 2018. A First Finding and a New Species of Wolf-Snake (Lycodon mackinnoni Wall, 1906) of the Ophidian Fauna of Azad Kashmir (Pakistan). Current Studies in Herpetology 18 (3–4): 153 - get paper here
  • JABLONSKI, D., BASIT, A., RANDALL, P., & MASROOR, R. 2025. Untangling the Wallacean Shortfall: The herpetofauna of central-eastern Afghanistan including two snake species new for the reptiles list of the country. Zootaxa 5588(2): 227-249 - get paper here
  • JABLONSKI, DANIEL; RAFAQAT MASROOR, MUAZZAM ALI KHAN & MUHAMMAD ALTAF 2019. Addition to the snake fauna of Pakistan: Mackinnon’s Wolf Snake, Lycodon mackinnoni Wall, 1906. Herpetological Bulletin 147: 21-23 - get paper here
  • Janssen HY, Pham CT, Ngo HT, Le MD, Nguyen TQ, Ziegler T 2019. A new species of Lycodon Boie, 1826 (Serpentes, Colubridae) from northern Vietnam. ZooKeys 875: 1-29 - get paper here
  • Lanza,B. 1999. A new species of Lycodon from the Philippines, with a key to the genus (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae). Tropical Zoology 12: 89-104 - get paper here
  • Manhas A., Wanganeo R. R. N., Wanganeo A. 2015. First record of Himalayan Wolf Snake (Lycodon mackinnoni Wall, 1906) in Doda District of lower Himalayas, Jammu and Kashmir, India. World Research Journal Biology of Biological Sciences (Predatory Journal) 1 (1): 002-004
  • NAWANI, S., DEEPAK, V., GAUTAM, K. B., GUPTA, S. K., BORUAH, B., & DAS, A. 2021. Systematic status of the rare Himalayan wolf snake Lycodon mackinnoni Wall, 1906 (Serpentes: Colubridae). Zootaxa 4966 (3): 305-320 - 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.
  • Wall,F. 1906. A new Himalayan snake (Lycodon mackinnoni). J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 17: 29-30 - get paper here
  • Wall,F. 1923. A Hand-list of the Snakes of the Indian Empire. Part 2. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 29: 598-632 - 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.
 
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