Melanophidium wynaudense

Melanophidium wynaudense
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Uropeltidae
Genus:	Melanophidium
Species:	M. wynaudense
Binomial name
Melanophidium wynaudense (Beddome, 1863)
Synonyms
Plectrurus wynaudensis Beddome, 1863 Plectrurus wynandensis [sic] - Beddome, 1863 Melanophidium wynandense [sic] - Günther, 1864 Melanophidium wynadense [sic] - Boulenger, 1893 Melanophidium wynaudense - M.A. Smith, 1943 Melanophidium wyandense [sic] - E.E. Williams, 1959 Melanophidium wynaudense - McDiarmid et al., 1999[1][2]

Melanophidium wynaudense, commonly known as the Indian black earth snake, is a species of snake endemic to India.

Geographic range

It is found in the Western Ghats of southern India.

Type locality: Cherambady in Wayanad.

Description

Beddome (1864: 180): "Scales round the body 15, round the neck 16 or 17; rostral scarcely produced back between the nasals; no supraorbital; muzzle more obtuse than in P. perrotteti; eye small; subcaudals 11 pairs; anal large, bifid; tail compressed; scales smooth, terminal spinose, tail ending in a single horny point.

Colour bluish black, with broad white blotches on the belly, which become larger and more numerous towards the tail; tail uniform bluish black."

Footnotes

1. Boulenger, G.A.1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Uropeltidæ... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. p. 163.
2. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

• Beddome, R.H. 1863. Descriptions of New Species of the Family Uropeltidæ from Southern India, with Notes on other little-known Species. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863: 225-229, Plates XXV., XXVI., XXVII.
• Beddome, R.H. 1863. Further Notes upon the Snakes of the Madras Presidency; with some Descriptions of New Species. Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci., 6: 41-48 [Reprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 306-314, 1940]
• Beddome, R.H. 1864. Descriptions of New Species of the Family Uropeltidæ from Southern India, with Notes on other little-known Species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 13: 177-180
• 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.
• Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III. - Serpentes. Taylor and Francis. London. 583 pp.

External links

• Melanophidium wynaudense at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 13 December 2007.