Melanophidium punctatum

Melanophidium punctatum, commonly known as Beddome's black shieldtail or Beddome's black earth snake, is a species of shieldtail snake endemic to the Western Ghats of India.[1][2]

Melanophidium punctatum
Beddome's black shieldtail
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Melanophidium
Species:
M. punctatum
Binomial name
Melanophidium punctatum
Beddome, 1871

Geographic range

It is found in the Western Ghats between Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary in the north and Kanyakumari district (Tamil Nadu) in the south.[1]

Description

Snout rounded; rostral small, just visible from above; frontal as long as or longer than its distance from the end of the snout; suture between the ocular and the frontal less than one third the length of the latter shield. Eye very small. Diameter of body 42 to 48 times in the total length. 15 scales round the middle of the body, 17 behind the head. Ventrals rather more than twice as broad as the contiguous scales, 184–198; subcaudals 15–18. Black above, beautifully iridescent; ventrals and the two lower series of scales on each side with a broad white border.[3]

Type locality: "Travancore, [...] under a stone in the Muti-Kuli Vayal, a little valley on the Asamboo range (4,500 feet elevation)"[2]

References
  1. Srinivasulu, C.; Srinivasulu, B.; Ganesan, S.R.; Kulkarni, N.U.; Sreekar, R.; Prabhu, M. (2013). "Melanophidium punctatum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2013: e.T172617A1352932. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T172617A1352932.en.
  2. Melanophidium punctatum at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 2 February 2018.
  3. Boulenger, G. A. 1890. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia.

Further reading
  • Beddome, R.H. 1871. Descriptions of new reptiles from the Madras Presidency. Madras Monthly J. Med. Sci., 4: 401-404 [Reprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 324–326, 1940.
  • Mason, George E. 1888. Description of a new earth-snake of the genus Silybura from the Bombay Presidency with remarks on little known Uropeltidae. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) 22: 184–186.


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