Description
Adults are reddish brown or brick-red dorsally, with three black stripes, which may be either continuous or interrupted.
The young are dark brown or black dorsally, with two or more narrow yellowish stripes, yellowish ventrally, with a brown dot on each ventral scale. Juveniles also have yellowish transverse markings behind the shielded part of the head, which may resemble an incomplete collar.
Adults may attain a total length of 40 cm (15+3⁄4 in).
Dorsal scales arranged in 15 rows at midbody (in 17 rows behind the head). Ventrals 163-175; subcaudals 8-16.
Snout broadly rounded. Rostral small, but visible from above. Frontal longer than broad. Supraocular much larger than the eye, longer than the prefrontal. One elongated temporal, which is 2/3 or 3/5 the length of the parietal. Ventrals nearly two times as broad as the contiguous scales. Dorsal scales of the tail smooth or a few of the terminal ones weakly bicarinate or tricarinate. Terminal scute with a transverse ridge which is less distinct in females. [5]
Platyplectrurus madurensis, commonly known as the Travancore Hills thorntail snake, Palni purple-brown worm thorntail snake, or Madurai shieldtail, is a species of uropeltid snake. It is found in southern India and, depending on the source, Sri Lanka.
The Karnataka burrowing snake is a species of uropeltid snake endemic to India.
The purple-red earth snake is a species of nonvenomous shield tail snake, endemic to southern India. No subspecies are currently recognized.
Uropeltis beddomii, commonly known as Beddome's earth snake, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
Uropeltis broughami, commonly known as Brougham's earth snake or the Sirumalai shieldtail, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to the Western Ghats in southern India.
Uropeltis ceylanica is a species of nonvenomous shieldtail snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to the Western Ghats of South India. No subspecies are currently recognized as being valid, but the presence of several synonyms, many recently resurrected, calls for further taxonomic studies of this species complex. It is a burrowing snake with a pointy head equipped to penetrate the soil. It has a thick tail which looks as if it has been cut at an angle. In Kerala it's called iru thala moori, which means two headed organism, as the tail end looks like another head. It primarily eats earth worms.
Uropeltis dindigalensis, commonly known as the Dindigul uropeltis and the Sirumalai Hills earth snake, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to Sirumalai and surrounding hill ranges of the southern Eastern Ghats, in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu state in South India.
Uropeltis ellioti, commonly known as Elliot's earth snake and Elliot's shieldtail, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
Uropeltis liura, commonly known as the Ashambu shieldtail and Günther's earth snake, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
Uropeltis macrorhyncha is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
Uropeltis maculata, also known commonly as the spotted earth snake and the spotted shieldtail, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to southern India. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
Uropeltis myhendrae, commonly known as Boulenger's earth snake, the Mahendragiri earth snake, and the Myhendra Mountain uropeltis, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
Uropeltis nitida is a species of nonvenomous shieldtail snake. The species is endemic to southern India. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
Uropeltis ocellata is a species of non-venomous shieldtail snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is indigenous to southern India. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
Uropeltis petersi, commonly known as Peter's earth snake, Peters' shieldtail, and the shieldtail earth snake, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
Uropeltis phipsonii, commonly known as Phipson's earth snake and Phipson's shieldtail, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
Uropeltis pulneyensis, commonly known as the Indian earth snake and the Palni shieldtail, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to the Western Ghats of India.
Uropeltis rubrolineata is a species of nonvenomous shieldtail snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to southern India. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
Uropeltis rubromaculata is a species of nonvenomous shieldtail snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to southern India. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
Smith's earth snake, also known commonly as the violet shieldtail, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
