Plectrurus aureus

Plectrurus aureus, commonly known as the Kerala burrowing snake or Kerala shield-tail snake,[1] is a species of uropeltid snake endemic to India.

Plectrurus aureus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Uropeltidae
Genus: Plectrurus
Species:
P. aureus
Binomial name
Plectrurus aureus
Beddome, 1880

Geographic range

It is found in southwestern India in the Western Ghats.

Type locality: "Chambra mountain in Wynad, near Kalpatty - one under an old rotten log at 6,000 feet elevation, the other under a large stone at 4,500 feet, both in heavy evergreen forest".

Description

Dorsum gold-colored, the scales edged with violet; a few irregular narrow violet-black crossbars may be present. Ventrum brighter gold-colored, with violet-black crossbands or alternating spots.

Adults may attain a total length of 40 cm (15+3⁄4 in).

Ventrals 164–177; subcaudals 8–12.

Scalation very similar to Plectrurus guentheri, except the ventrals are two times as broad as the contiguous scales. Diameter of body 39 to 44 times in the total length.[2]

Footnotes
  1. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Uropeltidæ... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. pp. 162-163, Plate X., Figures 3. & 3a.

Further reading
  • Beddome, R.H. 1880. Description of a new Snake of the Genus Plectrurus from Malabar. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880: 182.
  • Beddome, R.H. 1886. An Account of the Earth-Snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 17: 3-33.


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