Higher Taxa | Uropeltidae, Henophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
Subspecies | |
Common Names | E: Purple-red Earth Snake |
Synonym | Plectrurus sanguineus BEDDOME 1867 Plectrurus scabricauda THEOBALD 1876 Plectrurus scabricauda – BEDDOME 1886: 28 Teretrurus travancoricus BEDDOME 1886: 29 Teretrurus sanguineus — BEDDOME 1886: 28 Platyplectrurus sanguineus — BOULENGER 1893: 166 Teretrurus sanguineus — SMITH 1943 Teretrurus sanguineus — GANS 1966 Teretrurus sanguineus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 141 Teretrurus sanguiensis — GANESH & ASOKAN 2010 Teretrurus sanguineus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 714 Teretrurus sanguineus — GANESH & MURTHY 2022 |
Distribution | S India (Wynaad; Anaimalai hills, Travancore, 3,000— 7,400 feet, Kerala).
Type locality: "Anamallay forests; 4,000 feet elevation („above Ponachi" in B. M. catalogue) [1867 Plectrurus sanguineus BEDDOME]
Type locality: "Manantoddy, in the Wynad, elevation 2,700 feet" [Platyplectrurus hewstoni BEDDOME 1876]
Type locality: "Anamallays‘, S India [Plectrurus scabricauda TREOBALD]
Type locality: „Monntains between Travancore and Tinnerelli, above Paupanassum, 3000 to 5000 leet elevation", S India [Teretrurus travancoricus BEDDOME]
|
Reproduction | ovovivparous |
Types | Syntypes: BMNH 1946.1.16.57—1946.1.16.62; MNHN RA 1895.116-118 ( (= MHNP, 3 specimens) (Plectrurus sanguineus BEDDOME 1867) Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.15.77 (formerly 76.9.16.1) [Platyplectrurus hewstoni BEDDOME 1876] Holotype: [Plectrurus scabricauda TREOBALD] Lost (fide GANS 1966) |
Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Teretrurus can be distinguished from all other amni- otes by the characters given for the family, and from other uropeltids by divided oculars, nasals in contact, a temporal, no mental groove, dorsal scales in 15 rows at midbody, Oberhäutchen dentitions that are 51-80% of the total cell-size (Gower 2003), and a shortened, slightly compressed tail with weakly multicarinate scales that ter- minates in a single, pointed scute (Pyron et al. 2016: 486). |
Comment | Type species: Plectrurus sanguineus BEDDOME 1867 is the type species of the genus Teretrurus BEDDOME 1886. |
Etymology | Named after Latin sanguis (“blood”) + -eus, for "of or relating to blood" or "bloody" or "bloodred", a reference to the (ventral) color of species. |
References |
- Beddome, R.H. 1867. Descriptions and figures of five new snakes from the Madras Presidency. Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci., 11: 14-16. [Reprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 315- 317, 1940.] - get paper here
- Beddome, R.H. 1876. Description of a new species Indian snake of the genus Platyplectrurus from the Wynad. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1876: 701. - get paper here
- Beddome, R.H. 1886. An account of the earth snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 17: 3-33. - 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
- Cyriac, V., Ganesh, S., Madani, Z., Ghosh, A., Kulkarni, V., & Shanker, K. 2024. Phylogenetic Systematics of the Shieldtail Snake Genus Teretrurus Beddome, 1886 (Squamata, Uropeltidae) Reveals Extensive Cryptic Diversity and Novel Geographic Spread in the Western Ghats of India. Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists, 3(2) - get paper here
- Ganesh S. R., Asokan J. R. 2010. Catalogue of Indian herpetological specimens in the collection of the Government Museum Chennai, India. Hamadryad 35 (1): 46 – 63 - 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
- Gans, C. 1966. Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien. Uropeltidae. Das Tierreich Lfg. 84, 29 pp.
- Gemel, R.; G. Gassner & S. Schweiger 2019. Katalog der Typen der Herpetologischen Sammlung des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien – 2018. Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, B 121: 33–248
- McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
- Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here
- Pyron R. A., Ganesh S. R., Sayyed A., Sharma V., Wallach V. & Somaweera R. 2016. A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae). [type catalogue] Zoosystema 38 (4): 453-506 - get paper here
- Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
- 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.
- Theobald,W. 1876. Descriptive catalogue of the reptiles of British India. Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta: xiii + 238 pp. - 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 |
|