You are here » home › advanced search › search results › Sahyadriophis beddomei

Sahyadriophis beddomei (GÜNTHER, 1864)

iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Sahyadriophis beddomei?

Add your own observation of
Sahyadriophis beddomei »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaColubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Nilgiri Keelback, Beddome’s Keelback, Beddome’s grass snake 
SynonymTropidonotus beddomii GÜNTHER 1864: 269 (nom. nov. pro Spilotes vittatus)
Spilotes vittatus BEDDOME 1863: 308
Tropidonotus beddomei — BOULENGER 1890: 344
Tropidonotus beddomi — WALL 1919: 560
Rhabdophis beddomei — WALL 1923: 605 (in part)
Natrix beddomei — SMITH 1943: 306
Natrix stolata beddomii — CONSTABLE 1949: 139
Natrix beddomei — SHARMA 1976
Amphiesma beddomei — DAS 1996: 53
Amphiesma beddomei — MURTHY 2010
Hebius beddomei — GUO et al. 2014
Amphiesma beddomii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 28
Sahyadriophis beddomei — PATEL et al. 2023
Sahyadriophis beddomii — GANESH et al. 2025 
DistributionIndia (Maharashtra, Western Ghats, Kerala, Tamil Nadu)

Type locality: “Nilgherries, India” via lectotype designation.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: BMNH 1946.1.15.32 (fide Patel et al. 2023)
Other specimens: TNHM (Kerala), see Ganesh et al. 2025. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis. A medium-sized natricid ranging from SVL 177 to 495 with 19 keeled dorsal scales at mid-body; eight supralabials (rarely seven or nine); ventrals 140–145 ♂, 143–152 ♀ and subcaudals 71–76 ♂, 62–68 ♀; maxilla with 18 teeth, 12 pterygoid and 20–22 palatine teeth; pterygoid-palatine oriented nearly parallel to the head and does not converge or diverge posteriorly; TaL/TL 0.22–0.26 ♂. Additional morphological characteristics of the species are provided in Table 3 in Patel et al. 2023.


Unfortunately 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 74 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentNomenclature: The name Spilotes vittatus is preoccupied by Tropidonotus vittatus - BOIE 1827 = Xenochrophis vittata (L.).

The original description is available online (see link below). 
EtymologyNamed after Richard Henry Beddome, 1830–1911, British army officer and botanist. 
References
  • Beddome, RICHARD HENRY 1863. Further notes upon the snakes of the Madras Presidency; with descriptions of new species. Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci., 6: 41-48 [Reprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 306-314, 1940]
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • BHATNAGAR, PRANAY. 2021. HEBIUS BEDDOMEI (Beddome’s Keelback). DIET. Herpetological Review 52 (1): 158. - get paper here
  • Bhupathy, Subramanian & N. Sathishkumar 2013. Status of reptiles in Meghamalai and its environs, Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5 (15): 4953-4961 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. London (Taylor & Francis), 448 pp. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, George A. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp. - get paper here
  • Constable, JOHN D. 1949. Reptiles from the Indian Peninsula in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 103: 59-160. - get paper here
  • Ganesh, S. R., Arun, V., & Deepthi, P. N. 2025. Catalogue of Indian Herpetological Specimens in the Thiruvananthapuram Natural History Museum, Kerala, India. Hamadryad 41 (1/2): - get paper here
  • Ganesh, S.R.; S. Bhupathy, P. Karthik, G. Babu Rao & S. Babu 2020. Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India. JoTT 12 (9): 16123–16135 - get paper here
  • Günther, A. 1864. The Reptiles of British India. London (Taylor & Francis), xxvii + 452 pp. - get paper here
  • GUO, PENG; FEI ZHU, QIN LIU, LIANG ZHANG, JIAN X. LI, YU Y. HUANG & R. ALEXANDER PYRON 2014. A taxonomic revision of the Asian keelback snakes, genus Amphiesma (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae), with description of a new species. Zootaxa 3873 (4): 425–440 - get paper here
  • Inger, Robert F.;Shaffer, H. Bradley;Koshy, Mammen;Bakde, Ramesh 1984. A report on a collection of amphibians and reptiles from the Ponmudi, Kerala, South India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 81 (3): 551-570 - get paper here
  • Jigar, Solanki; Khare Rounak and Andhale Atmaram Vitthal 2022. CHECKLIST OF SNAKES FOUND IN MAVAL TALUKA, PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA. CIBTech Journal of Zoology 11: 182-192 - get paper here
  • Murthy, T.S.N. 2010. The reptile fauna of India. B.R. Publishing, New Delhi, 332 pp.
  • Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here
  • Patel, H.; Thackeray, T.; Campbell, P.D.; Mirza, Z.A. 2023. Systematic Assessment of Hebius beddomei (Günther, 1864) (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae) with Description of a New Genus and a New Allied Species from the Western Ghats, India. Taxonomy 3: 415–434 - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 1976. Records of the reptiles of Goa. Records Zool. Survey India 71 (1975): 149-167. - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
  • Shinde, Anuj; Shubhankar Deshpande, Makarand Ketkar, and Swayam Thakkar 2020. Northernmost record of the Nilgiri Keelback, Hebius beddomei (Günther 1864) (Squamata: Natricidae) from the Western Ghats of India. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians 27 (1): 109–110 - 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.
  • Wachtel, Eric 2019. Eine Reise zu den Königskobras in die Western Ghats. Ophidia 13 (2): 2-11
  • Wall,F. 1919. Notes on a collection of Snakes made in the Nilgiri Hills and the adjacent Wynaad. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 26: 552-584 - 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.
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:

As link to this species use URL address:

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Sahyadriophis&species=beddomei

without field 'search_param'. Field 'search_param' is used for browsing search result.



Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator