Boiga beddomei (WALL, 1909)
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Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
Subspecies | |
Common Names | E: Beddome's Cat Snake G: Beddomes Nachtbaumnatter |
Synonym | Dipsadomorphus beddomei WALL 1909: 152 Dipsadomorphus beddomei — WALL 1921: 282 Boiga beddomei — TAYLOR 1950: 576 Boiga beddomei — DAS 1996: 54 (part.) Boiga beddomei — WHITAKER & CAPTAIN 2004 Boiga beddomei — VYAS & DESAI 2010 Boiga beddomei — WALLACH et al. 2014: 101 (part.) Boiga beddomei — PATEL et al. 2018 Boiga beddomei — GANESH et al. 2020 Boiga beddomei — GANESH et al. 2022 |
Distribution | India (Western Ghats: Maharashtra [Bhimashankar, Mulshi, Koyna, Vasota], Gujarat) (see Vyas & Desai 2010). Type locality: Restricted to Matheran, Bombay Presidency (fide GANESH et al. 2020). |
Reproduction | oviparous |
Types | Lectotype: BMNH 69.8.28.123, an adult female from “Matheran”; collected by Dr. Leith, probably Andrew Henderson Leith (1848-1919) (fide GANESH et al. 2020). |
Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A species of Boiga inhabiting the Western Ghats, defined by the following combination of characters: 19 midbody scale rows (vs. 21–23 in B. nuchalis, B. dightoni, B. andamanensis); predominantly yellowish-brown dorsum (vs. greenish in B. flaviviridis; variable in B. andamanensis); vertebrals strongly enlarged (vs. mildly enlarged in B. barnesii); crown unpatterned (vs. with blackish-brown blotches in B. thackerayi, brownish blotches in B. ceylonensis); subcaudals > 110 (vs. < 110 in B. ceylonensis, B. thackerayi); venter densely speckled with dark brown (vs. uniform in B. flaviviridis); ventrolateral region devoid of large white and black blotches (vs. present in B. thackerayi, B. barnesii), but has a series of spots on both tips of each ventral scale (vs. venter unpatterned in B. andamanensis, B. flaviviridis) (from Ganesh et al. 2020: 308). Additional details (3899 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
Comment | Synonymy: Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda (2007) considered B. ranawanei to be synonymous with B. beddomei. They created an objective synonymy between these two taxa by designating the holotype of B. ranawanei as the neotype of B. beddomei. However, Ganesh et al. 2020 located the original type series of B. beddomei (see also Vogel & Ganesh 2013), hence the neotype designation becomes invalid (fide, Art. 75.8 ICZN 1999). However ,Ganesh et al. 2022 resurrected ranawanei. Distribution: Previously believed to occur in Sri Lanka too. A recent taxonomic revision restricted the type locality of Boiga beddomei to the Western Ghats of India via, a lectotype designation (see GANESH et al. 2020). Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
Etymology | Named after Richard Henry Beddome, 1830–1911, British army officer and botanist. Boiga ranawanei was named in honor of Dr. K. B. Ranawana, who is currently working extensively on various aspects of wild life ecology in Sri Lanka. |
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