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).
[Show full text]