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Dendrelaphis schokari (KUHL, 1820)

IUCN Red List - Dendrelaphis schokari - Vulnerable, VU
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Higher TaxaColubridae, Ahaetuliinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymDipsas schokari KUHL 1820: 80
Dendrophis helena WERNER 1893 (fide SMITH 1943)
Dendrelaphis schokari — ROOIJEN & VOGEL 2008
Dendrelaphis schokari — WALLACH et al. 2014: 221 
DistributionSri Lanka

Type locality: Ceylon = Sri Lanka  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesNeotype. RMNH 842; collector: Frank, 1853 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A species of Dendrelaphis, character-ized by the combination of: (1) vertebral scales en-larged but smaller than the dorsals of the fi rst row; (2) 155-177 ventrals; (3) 105-127 divided subcaudals; (4) 15 dorsal scale rows at midbody; (5) anal shield di- vided; (6) 1 loreal scale; (7) 2 supralabials touching the eye; (8) a short fi rst sublabial that touches 2 infralabials; (9) 4 to 7 temporal scales; (10) 2 to 3 postoculars; (11) maximum total length 119.0 cm; (12) TAIL/TL 0.30-0.34; (13) an interparietal spot is absent (rarely rudimentarily present); (14) the presence of a light ventrolateral stripe; (15) the presence, in most specimens, of a vertebral stripe.


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CommentBehavior: diurnal

Distribution: Populations from the Western Ghats have been revalidated as Dendrelaphis chairecaeos Boie, 1827. Hence D. schokari is no longer present in India.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018)

Etymology: not given by Kuhl 1820.

Genome: Ruchira et al. 2025. 
EtymologyCorkill & Cochrane 1966 derive the name schokari from the Arabic 'shigari', which would mean 'from the trees'. However, some sources (such as Wikipedia) call it “Schokar's bronzeback”, indicating an eponym of unknown source. 
References
  • Blackburn, D.G. 1993. STANDARDIZED CRITERIA FOR THE RECOGNITION OF REPRODUCTIVE MODES IN SQUAMATE REPTILES. Herpetologica 49 (1): 118-132 - get paper here
  • De Zoysa, H. K. S., D. P. Samarasinghe and S. Wickramasinghe. 2015. Dendrelaphis schokari (Schokar's bronzeback) predation. Herpetological Review 46 (4): 642-643 - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Karunarathna, Suranjan D. M. S. and A. A. Thasun Amarasinghe 2011. A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE REPTILE FAUNA IN NILGALA FOREST AND ITS VICINITY, MONARAGALA DISTRICT, SRI LANKA. Taprobanica 3 (2): 69-76 - get paper here
  • Kuhl,H. 1820. Beiträge zur Zoologie und vergleichenden Anatomie. Hermannsche Buchhandlung, Frankfurt, 152 pp. - get paper here
  • Rooijen, J. van & Vogel, G. 2008. An investigation into the taxonomy of Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin, 1803): revalidation of Dipsas schokari (Kuhl, 1820) (Serpentes, Colubridae). Contributions to Zoology, 77 (1) 33-43 (2008) - get paper here
  • Rooijen, J. van & Vogel, G. 2009. A multivariate investigation into the population systematics of Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin, 1803) and Dendrelaphis schokari (Kuhl, 1820): revalidation of Dendrophis chairecacos Boie, 1827 (Serpentes: Colubridae). The Herpetological Journal 19: 193-200 - get paper here
  • 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.
  • Somaweera, R., Pirro, S., & Pyron, R. A. 2025. The Complete Genome Sequences of 26 Species of Sri Lankan Snakes. Biodiversity Genomes - 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.
  • Werner, Franz 1893. Herpetologische Nova (1). Zool. Anz. 16 (414): 81-84 - get paper here
  • WICKRAMASINGHE, L.J. MENDIS 2016. A new canopy-dwelling species of Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Sinharaja, World Heritage Site, Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 4162 (3): 504–518 - get paper here
 
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