Dendrelaphis andamanensis (ANDERSON, 1871)
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Dendrelaphis andamanensis
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Ahaetuliinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Andaman Bronze-back G: Andamanen-Bronzenatter |
| Synonym | Dendrophis picta var. andamanensis ANDERSON 1871: 184 Dendrophis boiga andamanensis — STEJNEGER 1933 Ahaetulla ahaetulla andamanensis — SMITH 1943:244. Dendrelaphis andamanensis — VOGEL & VAN ROOIJEN 2011 Dendrelaphis andamanensis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 215 |
| Distribution | India (Andaman Islands) Type Locality: ‘‘Andamans’’ |
| Reproduction | oviparous. |
| Types | Holotype: ZSI (ZSIC) 7714 (Das et al., 1998). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A species of Dendrelaphis, characterized by the combination of (1) vertebral scales strongly enlarged, larger than the dorsals of the first row; (2) 176–196 ventrals; (3) 125– 146 divided subcaudals; (4) 15 dorsal scale rows at midbody; (5) anal shield divided; (6) one loreal scale; (7) two supralabials touching the eye; (8) a short first sublabial that usually touches two infralabials (five infralabials on one side in one specimen); (9) 11–16 temporal scales; (10) two to three postoculars; (11) maximum total length 120.0 cm; (12) Rel TAIL 0.30–0.34; (13) a narrow temporal stripe that starts before the eye, covers only the lower edge of the temporal region and does not extend onto the neck; (14) the absence of a light ventrolateral stripe; (15) a bright grass-green coloration in living specimens (Fig. 5) as opposed to the brown/blue coloration in D. cyanochloris. |
| Comment | Distribution: D. andamanensis has been erroneously reported from the Great Nicobar Islands (Biswas and Sanyal, 1977) which actually originated from the Andamans (Vijayakumar and David, 2006). As a result, Das (1999) considered D. pictus var. andamanensis to be an erroneous report for Andaman’s fauna while considering D. cyanochloris to be an inhabitant of the Andamans. Similar species: Dendrelaphis pictus var. andamanensis has been wrongly identified as Dendrelaphis cyanochloris in the literature (e.g., Cox et al., 1998; Das, 2002; Whitaker and Captain, 2004). However, D. andamanensis cannot be confused with D. pictus because of its bright green coloration and absence of a ventrolateral line. The picture in Whitaker and Captain (2004: 177) titled Dendrelaphis pictus andamanensis is in fact Dendrelaphis humayuni, Tiwari and Biswas, 1973. Behavior: diurnal Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018) |
| Etymology | Named after the type locality. |
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