Japanese keelback

The Japanese keelback (Hebius vibakari) is a species of colubrid snake, which is endemic to Asia.

Japanese keelback
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Genus: Hebius
Species:
H. vibakari
Binomial name
Hebius vibakari
(H. Boie, 1826)[2]
Synonyms
  • Tropidonotus vibakari H. Boie, 1826
  • Natrix vibakari Stejneger, 1907
  • Amphiesma vibakari Malnate, 1960[3]

Geographic range

It is found in northeastern China, Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku), Korea, and Russia (Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai).[4]

Description

It is a small snake, growing to a maximum total length of 44 cm (17+14 in), with a tail 10 cm (3+78 in) long.

Dorsally it is olive or reddish brown, with small blackish spots. Some specimens may have a dark olive or blackish vertebral stripe. The upper labials are yellow, with black sutures. On each side of the nape of the neck there is a yellow dark-edged diagonal streak, these two streaks converging posteriorly. Ventrally it is yellow, with a series of brown dots or short lines at the outer ends of the ventral scales.

Dorsal scales strongly keeled (except outer row), arranged in 19 rows at midbody. Ventrals 127–151; anal plate divided; subcaudals divided 59–79.[5]

References

  1. Borzee, A., Kidera, N., Borkin, L., Orlov, N.L. & Working Group. (2021). "Hebius vibakari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T192162A2049133. Retrieved 20 November 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System). www.itis.gov.
  3. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  4. The Reptile Database.
  5. Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Colubridæ Aglyphæ, Part. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I.-XXVIII. (Tropidonotus vibakari, pp. 221-222.)

Further reading

  • Boie, H. 1826. Merkmale eineger japanischer Lurche. Isis von Oken 19: 203–216. (Tropidonotus vibakari, p. 207.)


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