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Additional Locality Record and Note on Breeding of Stout Sand Snake Psammophis Longifrons Boulenger, 1890

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Additional Locality Record and Note on Breeding of Stout Sand Snake Psammophis Longifrons Boulenger, 1890 Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 769-772 (2020) (published online on 21 September 2020) Additional locality record and note on breeding of Stout Sand Snake Psammophis longifrons Boulenger, 1890 (Reptilia, Squamata) from the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India Shaik Hussain1, Buddi Laxmi Narayana2, Gandla Chethan Kumar3,*, Laka Srinivas4, and B. Mahesh5 The snake family Lamprophiidae Fitzinger, 1843 lineolatus (Brant, 1838) also occurs in Pakistan (Smith, is one of the most widespread colubroid families 1943; Baig et al., 2008; Ganesh et al., 2017) occurring throughout much of the old world, including The Stout sand snake P. longifronsis (Fig. 1) is a Africa, the Middle East, Madagascar, southern Europe, rare and endemic snake from India. The snake was south-central and up to East Asia (Kelly et al., 2008; originally described in 1890 by G.A. Boulenger from the Vyas and Patel, 2013). The subfamily Psammophiinae “Cuddapah Hills”, Andhra Pradesh based on a holotype has had a checkered past and still little is known of specimen collected by R.H. Beddome representing the evolutionary relationships of this taxonomically only the head and neck and lacking the rest of the complex genus comprising of about 54 nominate body. Dreckmann (1892), later summed up further data species of which around 35 belong to the type genus based on the collection of D’Aguiar from Kalyan town, Psammophis Boie, 1825 (Kelly et al., 2008; Uetz et Thane District, Maharashtra, India. The Stout Sand al., 2019). The genus is the most widespread, diverse snake is recorded from Damanganga, Gujarat (Smith, genera in Africa compared to Asia and yet perhaps 1943); Valsad, Gujarat (Smith, 1943; Vyas and Patel, taxonomically most problematic of Africa’s family- 2013); Panch Mahals, Gujarat (Smith, 1943); Nagpur, level snake lineages (Kelly et al., 2008). Four species, P. Maharastra (Smith, 1943); Surat, Gujarat (Vyas, 1987); condanarus (Merren, 1820), P. schokari (Forskal, 1775), Amravati, Maharashtra (Nande and Deshmukh, 2007); P. leithii Günther, 1869 and P. longifrons Boulenger, Melghat, Maharashtra (Nande and Deshmukh, 2007); 1890 are known to occur in India, while the former two Buldana, Maharashtra (Joshi, 2011); Ujjain, Madhya species have much widespread distribution within the Pradesh (Ingle, 2009); Navsari, Gujarat (Vyas and genus in Asia and later species are mainly confined to Patel, 2013); Shimoga, Karnataka (Premkumar and northwestern and central India (Whitaker and Captain, Sharma, 2017); Boduppal and Hayathnagar, Telangana 2004; Vyas and Patel, 2013; Srinivasulu et al., 2014a; Ganesh et al., 2017; Visvanathan et al., 2017). Other congeners, Psammophis indochinensis Smith, 1943 inhabits the Indo-Chinese region and, Psammophis 1 H.No: 9-1-68, Madhura Basthi, Kothagudam District, Telangana - 507101, India. 2 Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad, Telangana - 500064, India. 3 Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. 4 H. No: 1, Vijayapuri South, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh – 522439, India. 5 H.No: 3-10821, Kondaladevuni Palem, Rambilli Mandal, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh - 531061, India. Figure 1. Psammophis longifrons Boulenger (1890), in situ * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] from Guntur, Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh. 770 Shaik Hussain et al. State (Visvanathan et al., 2017); and Surat and Bharuch on a whole appears as a reticulation or chain marked District, Gujarat (Trivedi and Mody, 2018). pattern. A clear difference in the size of the scale size is On 12 February 2019 an adult gravid female P. observed between the inner and outer most scale rows, longifrons was sighted at Bhramandapuram tanda wherein the inner body scales are lesser in size than the (Jogutanda) (Fig. 2) 16◦32’’ N & 79◦19’’ E, Vijayapuri outer most body scale rows. Belly scales are white to south, Macherla Mandal, Guntur District, Andhra whitish cream in colouration. Pradesh. The individual was rescued and identified The natural history and behaviour of the stout based on the morphological characters portrayed sand snake are poorly known. The species is usually by Whitaker and Captain (2004), Vyas and Patel terrestrial and arboreal contradicting to the common (2013) and Vishvanathan et al. (2017). The specimen name, misleading as this species is never sighted on measuring about Snout to vent length of 139 cm with a sand (Whitaker and Captain, 2004). The species is tail length of 37 cm. The head length (3.6 cm), elongate known to be occurring from the secondary and disturbed tapering towards the front, eyes with the rounded pupil. dry deciduous forests and their diet mainly involves The other scalation on the head includes - Preocular- geckos and skinks, whereas in captivity this species 1; Post ocular-2; Loreal-1 (Longer than width) and was reported feeding on agamids and tree frogs (Vyas Temporals (2 anterior temporals+3 posterior temporals) and Patel, 2013; Srinivasulu et al., 2014b). During (Fig. 3), anal scale divided. The individual sighted has the sighting, the individual was recorded on the sand a uniform pale brown body colouration and each scale adjacent to a heap of logs of a house under construction. on the dorsal body is margined with black colour which The species is listed in Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and no conservation measures for this species are noted. The female individual sighted at Andhra Pradesh, laid 4 eggs (Fig. 4) in an enclosure with a gap of two days between egg-laying processes. The eggs are more or less oval, capsule shaped with leathery off white outer shell and measured about 2.4 mm in vertical length and around 1.8 mm to its horizontal length. Unfortunately, the eggs were spoiled at the initial development stages during incubation. Vyas and Patel (2013) reported that the egg-laying season of P. longifrons in the month of April with a clutch size of 8 eggs. However, the breeding season is comparatively different in different Figure 2. Locality records and distribution of Psammophis longifrons Boulenger, 1890 from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State. 1. Cuddapah Hills, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh (Type locality); 2. Boddupal, Hyderabad, Telangana State; 3. Hayathnagar, Hyderabad, Telangana State; 4.Bhramdapuram Figure 3. a) Head Dorsal, b) Head Lateral of Psammophis tanda, Vijayapuri south, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. longifrons. Locality record and note on breeding of Psammophis longifrons from India 771 (2004) argued that the type locality of P. longifrons is probably incorrect and suspected its presence in Andhra Pradesh. However, the present location is at a distance of 270 km away from the type locality (Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh) and nearer records such as Boduppal and Hayathnagar in Telangana State are at 190 Km and 172 km respectively. Further explorations and studies are needed in the dry regions of Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh to distinguish the biological diversity and their molecular relationships. Acknowledgments. We thank the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department for continuous support and encouragement. Thanks are due to Darla Sai Krishna, Neelapu Pavan Kalyan for the field assistance. GCK thanks the Director and Head of the Office, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for the encouragement. BLN thanks the Curator, Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad for Figure 4. A clutch of eggs. necessary facilities and support. References areas, while other members of the genus Psammophis Agarwal, I., Wilkinson, M., Mohapatra, P., Dutta, S.K., Giri, V.B., inhabiting India - P. leithii lays 4 – 8 eggs in months Gower, D. (2013): The first teresomatan caecilian (Amphibia: of March to June (Whitaker and Captain, 2004; Khan, Gymnophiona) from the Eastern Ghats of India – a new species 2006), P. schokari lay 6 – 10 eggs between the months of Gegeneophis Peters, 1880. Zootaxa 3696: 534–546. Baig, K.J., Masroor, R., Arshad, M. (2008): Biodiversity and of March to July (Whitaker and Captain, 2004; Khan, ecology of the herpetofauna of Cholistan Desert, Pakistan. 2006) and P. condanarus lay 4 – 8 eggs between March Russian Journal of Herpetology 15(3): 193–205. and July (Khan, 2006). Boulenger, G.A. (1896): Catalogue of Snakes in British Museum The study on herpetofauna in peninsular India are (Natural History). Part III, British Museum Natural History, very sparse in the dry forests in several ecoregions of London. southern India including the Eastern Ghats, that remain Chethan Kumar, G., Srinivasulu, C., Krishna Prasad, K. (2017): First records of the Dumeril’s black-headed snake Sibynophis rather unexplored and neglected (Ganesh et al., 2017; subpunctatus (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) (Reptilia: Chethan Kumar et al., 2017; Seethramaraju et al., Colubridae) from Telangana State, India. Checklist 13: 577– 2019). Recent studies in these understudied regions 580. revealed higher herpetofaunal diversity than earlier Chethan Kumar, G., Srinivasulu, C., Seetharamaraju, M. (2015): On presumed (Rao et al., 2005; Srinivasulu and Das, 2008; the distribution of the Reticulate leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus Agarwal et al., 2013; Narayana et al., 2014; Srinivasulu reticulatus (Beddome, 1870) (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India. Taprobanica 7: 272–274. et al., 2014a; Chethan Kumar et al., 2015; Ganesh and Dreckmann (1892): Miscellaneous Notes. No V. A Rare Snake. Arumugam, 2016; Chethan Kumar et al., 2017; Giri Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society vii, pp. 406. et al., 2017; Narayana et al., 2017; Mirza et al., 2018; Ganesh, S.R., Arumugam, M. (2016): Species richness of Seethramaraju
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