Hebius clerki (WALL, 1925)
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Hebius clerki
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Yunnan Keelback G: Boulengers Gebirgswassernatter Chinese: 克氏腹链蛇 |
| Synonym | Natrix clerki WALL 1925: 809 Amphiesma parallelum — AO et al. 2004 Amphiesma clerki — DAVID et al. 2015 Hebius clerki — GUO et al. 2014 (by implication) |
| Distribution | N India (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim), Myanmar, China (Yunnan), Nepal Type locality: “Sinlum Kaba, Kachin Hills”, now Sinlumkaba, Kachin State, Myanmar (24°16'N–97°31'E) |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.13.50 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A species of Amphiesma characterized by (1) a dark dorsal background, dark brown, dark greyish- brown or dark brownish-grey (same in life), becoming more or less distinctly darker on the back than on sides; (2) laterally, a series of pale yellow, pale yellowish-brown or brownish-yellow spots (reddish-brown or rusty red in life), distinctly larger and conspicuous on the neck and forepart of the body, connected along the hinder half of the body by a pale dorsolateral stripe extending on the 5th–7thdorsal scale rows; (3) scales broadly edged with dark brown on the lower part of the sides, producing irregular blotches; (4) faint, irregular and short blackish-brown streaks on the 1st dorsal scale row, producing a very discontinuous zigzag ventrolateral stripe; (5) a conspicuous, broad, blackish-brown postocular streak extending from behind the eye to the corner of the mouth then extending, usually without gap (rarely discontinuous) on the side of the neck; (6) a conspicuous, pale (cream or pale yellow), V or Y-shaped chevron starting on each side from behind the last supralabial and reaching the upper surface of the neck, pointing backwards; (7) supralabials dotted with brown to black dots or even nearly brown, edged with dark brown and with usually a conspicuous streak on the hinder margin of the 6th SL; (8) venter creamy yellow (bright reddish-brown, rusty red or crimson in life), with outer tips of ventral scales light brown (dark purplish-red in life); (9) 18–22 maxillary teeth, the last two strongly enlarged, either without diastema or barely separated from anterior teeth by a short diastema; (10) 19–19–17 dorsal scale rows; (11) dorsal scales strongly keeled on all dorsal scale rows, including 1st row; (12) tail long, ratio tail length / total length 0.262–0.325 (0.280–0.325 in males, 0.262–0.273 in females); (13) 162–173 ventrals; (14) 85–108 subcaudals; (15) anal plate divided; (16) usually 1 preocular; (17) usually 2 anterior temporals [David et al. 2015]. |
| Comment | Synonymy: Natrix clerki WALL 1925 was considered as a synonym of Amphiesma parallelum by SMITH 1943, and most subsequent authors followed his synonymization (e.g. WALLACH et al. 2014: 32). DAVID et al. 2015 resurrected N. clerki as Amphiesma clerki. Since H. clerki has quite a large range, many reports of H. parallelum may actually represent H. clerki. |
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