Schokar's bronzeback
Species of snake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dendrelaphis schokari, also known as the common bronze-back[4] or Schokar's bronzeback[5] (Sinhala: තරු/මූකලන් හාල්දන්ඩා, Tharu/Mookalan Haaldanda in Sinhala[4]), is a species of non-venomous arboreal snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Sri Lanka.[2]
| Schokar's bronzeback | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Colubridae |
| Subfamily: | Ahaetuliinae |
| Genus: | Dendrelaphis |
| Species: | D. schokari |
| Binomial name | |
| Dendrelaphis schokari (Kuhl, 1820) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
| |
Taxonomy
Dendrelaphis schokari belongs to the genus Dendrelaphis, which contains 48 other described species.[6]
Dendrelaphis is one of five genera belonging to the vine snake subfamily Ahaetuliinae, of which Dendrelaphis is most closely related to Chrysopelea, as shown in the cladogram below:[7]
| Ahaetuliinae |
| ||||||
Habitat
Diet
Description
It can be distinguished easily from other Dendrelaphis species by having a cream-colored spotted line on its olive green dorsum (back) from neck to mid fore body along the spine.[3][8][9][10]
Formal description
Dendrelaphis schokari adult female: snout-to-vent length (SVL) 51 cm (20 in); tail 22.5 cm (8.9 in); 161 ventrals (2 preventrals); 113 subcaudals, all divided; anal shield divided; 1 loreal scale (L+R); 9 infralabials (L+R); first infralabials touch at the mental groove; first sublabial touches infralabials 6 and 7 (L+R); 9 supralabials (L+R), supralabials 5 and 6 touch the eye (L+R); 2 postoculars (L+R); temporal formula: 2+2 (L+R); dorsal formula: 15-15-11; vertebral scales enlarged but smaller than the scales of the first dorsal row; width of the dorsal scale at the position of the middle ventral 2.1 mm; eye-diameter 4.9 mm (L+R); distance anterior border of eye to posterior border of nostril 4.5 mm (L+R); a dark postocular stripe starts behind the eye, covers only the lower quarter of the temporal region and ends at the edge of the jaw; a vertebral stripe, formed by yellow spots on the vertebral scales, starts behind the head and is no longer visible after the level of the 34th ventral scale; an interparietal spot is absent; a faint light ventrolateral line is present, not bordered by black lines; ground color brown, based on the color of unshed skin; supralabials and throat yellow; ventrals yellow anteriorly, yellowish-green posteriorly.[3]: 152 [8]: 33–43 [9]: 81–84 [10]: 583
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