Lycodon Flavomaculatus Wall 1907
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WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & IRCF AMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 189 22(4):164–167 • DEC 2015 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES A. Chasing New Bullsnakes (Pituophis Locality catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: for the Elusive and On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: EndemicA Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Yellow-Spotted WolfRobert W.Snake Henderson 198 RESEARCH(Lycodon ARTICLES flavomaculatus Wall 1907), . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida with ............................................. Notes Brianon J. Camposano, Distribution Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan,and and Michael Habitat Granatosky 212 CONSERVATION ALERTVivek Sharma1, Arpit Jain2, and Rita Bhandari3 . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 1Department. More ofThan Zoology, Mammals Government ...................................................................................................................................................................... Model Science College, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) 482003, India ([email protected]) 223 . The “Dow285/2, Jones Shishak Index” Nagar, of Biodiversity Airport ........................................................................................................................................... Road, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) 452005, India ([email protected]) 225 3Department of Zoology, Government O.F.K. College, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) 482003, India ([email protected]) HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 PROFILE even species of Wolfsnakes. Kraig Adler: A Lifetime (Lycodon Promoting Boie Herpetology 1827) ................................................................................................ occur Solapur (Srinivasulu et al.Michael 2014) L. Treglia and 234 Nagpur (Deshmukh et on the Indian mainland (excluding the northeastern al. 2015) of Maharashtra; Bhanvagar and Vadodara (Vyas and S COMMENTARY region): Common Wolfsnake. The Turtles Have ( L.Been aulicus Watching MeLinnaeus ........................................................................................................................ 1758), Upadhaya 2008) of Gujarat. Eric GangloffSrinivasulu 238 et al. (2014) tabu- Yellow-collared Wolfsnake (L. flavicollis Mukherjee and lated (p. 28) three additional localities from Madhya Pradesh Bhupathy 2007), BOOKYellow-spotted REVIEW Wolfsnake (L. flavomacu- (Balaghat and Mandla) and Chattisgarh (Sarguja) in a per- . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, latus Wall 1907), Twin-spottedR. Berridge, P. Ramani, Wolfsnake and B.E. Young (L. .............................................................................................................. jara Shaw sonal communication to Sanjay Robert Powell Thakur. 243 However, in another 1802), Mackinnon’s Wolfsnake (L. mackinnoni Wall 1906), part of the document (p. 55), the same species was treated as Northern Wolfsnake CONSERVATION (L. striatus Shaw RESEARCH 1802), REPORTS: and Travancore Summaries of Publishedendemic Conservation to theResearch Western Reports ................................. Ghats and mentioned 245 central Indian NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 Wolfsnake (L. travancoricus NEWBRIEFS Beddome ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1870). The natural localities as unconfirmed. Despite having 248 contradictory infor- history and geographical EDITORIAL distribution INFORMATION of the ..................................................................................................................................................... Yellow-Spotted mation, we list two localities in Madhya 251 Pradesh (Balaghat Wolfsnake (L. flavomaculatus FOCUS ON CONSERVATION) are much in: needA Project of You further Can Support ...............................................................................................and Mandla), as they are neighboring 252 regions of documented investigation. Since the initial description, no significant localities for L. flavomaculatus. We express our doubts on the study has been undertaken on this species, although Captain validity of Sarguja, Chattisgarh, which is far from the known (1999) addressed issues related to identification. distribution and lacks even photographic evidence; S. Thakur Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Wall (1907) first recognized LycodonTotat et velleseque flavomaculatus audant mo as (pers.Totat comm.)et velleseque agreed.audant mo Apart from these, Murthy (1991) pre- a distinct species. Previously, Boulengerestibus inveliquo (1893) velique had rerchil consid - sentedestibus inveliquo evidence velique for rerchil the presence of L. flavomaculatus in the erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus ered it a mere color variant of L. aulicusaut dolor. Wall apicto (1907)invere pe dolum himself Nilgiriaut dolor apictoBiosphere invere pe Reserve,dolum Tamil Nadu, but these snakes were regarded initially deposited specimensfugiatis as maionsequat color variants eumque of L. laterfugiatis shown maionsequat to be eumque L. flavicollis based on the original descrip- moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- jara until he received a live specimenma derrovitae representing voluptam, aas specificquos tiontur maby derrovitae Mukherjee voluptam, and as Bhupathy (2007). Also, one of the population from “Dharwar” (= Dharwad,accullabo. Karnataka, India), early reports of L. flavomaculatus from Fyzabad (= Faizabad which is the type locality of L. flavomaculatus. Additionally, of Uttar Pradesh) is either disregarded by the majority of he mentioned other important localities, which included subsequent workers or discussed as “Oudi” (= Awadh?), a Sangli, “Kirkee” (= Khadki), “Poona” (= Pune District), term used to cover a large geographical area. At this time, we “Nasik” (= Nashik District of Maharashtra), and “Fyzabad” refrain from commenting on the validity of that locality and (= Faizabad District of Uttar Pradesh). Recently, Wallach et leave this question to future investigators. al. (2014) treated Fyzabad as an invalid type locality. Still, On 6 and 9 September 2013, we captured two live L. fla- this species has been reported with confidence from at least vomaculatus within 500 m of one another in the vicinity of the four states (Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh is yet in question), which city of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India (23.31°N, 77.49°E, include the following localities with districts referring to the 427 asl). We encountered the first individual at 2100 h on smallest unit of each locality: Dharwad of Karnataka (Wall the first floor at a height of 4.2 m in an unused old building. 1907), Sangli, Pune, and Nashik (Wall 1907); Buldhana We collected the other individual at 2145 h crossing an open and Vidarbha (Wall 1923); Amravati, including Melghat grassy plain with scattered medium-sized rocks adjacent to (Pradhan 2005; Nande and Deshmukh 2007); Raigarh an agricultural area. We took morphological data from both (Walmiki et al. 2011); Satara (Chikane and Bhosale 2012); specimens and released them at the original sites of capture. Copyright © 2015. Vivek Sharma. All rights reserved. 164 SHARMA ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 22(4):164–167 • DEC 2015 Fig. 1. A Yellow-Spotted Wolfsnake (Lycodon flavomaculatus) encountered at 2100 h on the first floor at a height of 4.2 m in an unused old building in the outskirts of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India. Photograph by Arpit Jain. The two unsexed adults (Fig. 1) exhibited the following char- tiles and other animals. The habitat extends throughout the acters: Length 520 and 410 mm, respectively; head depressed, city and into nearby rural and agricultural areas. clearly broader than neck; 9 supralabials, 3rd to 5th in contact By updating our knowledge of the distribution of L. fla- with orbit; lower edge of both nasals covered by 1st supral- vomaculatus, now known to cover most of the Deccan Plateau abial; 1 well-defined loreal in contact with internasals on each (especially the north-central portions), the semi-arid zone of side; 1 preocular; 2 postoculars; temporals 2 + 3; smooth dor- northwestern India (in Gujarat), and parts of the Central sal scales in 17:17:15 rows; ventrals 168 and 180, respectively; Indian Highlands, we can begin to draw some conclusions cloacal divided; paired subcaudals 57 and 59, respectively. regarding the habitat of the species. With a total of 15 or Head patternless, glossy brownish-black with yellowish-white