A New Species of Wolf Snake (Serpentes: Colubridae: Lycodon) from Berhampur, Ganjam, Odisha, India

Subhendu Mallik, Siba Prasad Parida, Ashis Kumar Mohanty, Asutosh Mallik, Kamal Lochan Purohit, Siddhartha Mohanty, Shakti Nanda, Sadhwi Sindura, Swetashree Purohit, Anuja Tarini Mishra, Sujata Sahoo

Abstract


A new species of the wolf snake is described from Odisha, India. Morphologically, the new species is most similar to Lycodon jara, but differs by its well defined collar. The collar is white in hatchlings and white with yellow blotches on the dorsal side in juvenules and adults. The snout is projected beyond the lower jaw (vs. not beyond in L. jara). The post-oculars are one or two (vs. 2 always in L. jara). Twin spots are present on each scale of the body except the 6 – 7 rows of scales in the collar region (vs. each scale in L. jara). The color of twin spots is white in hatchlings and yellow in adults in the new species. The yellow tinges on the head shields are much less as compared to L. jara in the adults of the new species.

Keywords


collar; absence of twin spots in collar; snout projected beyond lower jaw; Subhendu’s Wolf snake and Lycodon odishii sp. nov.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2014-21-3-205-216

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