Melanophidium wynaudense

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

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

Geographic range

M. wynaudense is found in the Western Ghats of southern India.

Type locality: "Cherambady in the Wynaud [= Wayanad]".

Description

Beddome (1864: 180) described M. wynaudense as follows:

"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 GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Uropeltidæ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. ("Melanophidium wynadense [sic]", p. 163).
  2. "Melanophidium wynaudense ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading
  • Beddome RH (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-XXVII.
  • Beddome RH (1863). "Further Notes upon the Snakes of the Madras Presidency; with some Descriptions of New Species". Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci. 6: 41-48. (Plectrurus wynaudensis, new species). [Reprint: (1940). J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London 1 (10): 306-314.]
  • Beddome RH (1864). "Descriptions of New Species of the Family Uropeltidæ from Southern India, with Notes on other little-known Species". Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Third Series 13: 177-180.
  • Beddome RH (1886). "An Account of the Earth-Snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon". Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Fifth Series 17: 3-33.
  • Boulenger GA (1890). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 541 pp. ("Melanophidium wynadense [sic]", p. 272).
  • Günther ACLG (1864). The Reptiles of British India. London: The Ray Society. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xxvii + 452 pp. + Plates I-XXVI. ("Melanophidium wynandense [sic]", p. 194 + Plate XVII, figures I & I').
  • Smith MA (1943). The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (Melanophidium wynaudense, p. 67).


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