Sahyadriophis

Sahyadriophis
Nilgiri keelback (Sahyadriophis beddomei)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Subfamily:	Natricinae
Genus:	Sahyadriophis Patel, Thackeray, Campbell & Mirza, 2023
Type species
Sahyadriophis uttaraghati Patel, Thackeray, Campbell & Mirza, 2023
Species
See text

Sahyadriophis is a genus of snakes in the family Colubridae. The genus is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. ^[1]

Taxonomy

The genus Sahyadriophis was erected in 2023 with Sahyadriophis uttaraghati as the type species. The Nilgiri keelback, formerly placed in the genus Hebius , was also moved into this genus. Molecular data has recovered Sahyadriophis as the sister taxon to the clade containing Xenochrophis , Fowlea and Atretium , diverging from said clade during the late Oligocene or early Miocene, albeit with poor support. ^{[1] [2]}

Species

Two species are currently placed in this genus:

• Sahyadriophis beddomei (Günther, 1864) – Nilgiri keelback
• Sahyadriophis uttaraghati (Patel, Thackeray, Campbell & Mirza, 2023)

References

1. Patel, Harshil; Thackeray, Tejas; Campbell, Patrick D.; Mirza, Zeeshan A. (August 2023). "Systematic Assessment of Hebius beddomei (Günther, 1864) (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae) with Description of a New Genus and a New Allied Species from the Western Ghats, India". Taxonomy. 3 (3): 415–434. doi: 10.3390/taxonomy3030024 . ISSN   2673-6500.
2. Deepak, V; Cooper, Natalie; Poyarkov, Nikolay A; Kraus, Fred; Burin, Gustavo; Das, Abhijit; Narayanan, Surya; Streicher, Jeffrey W; Smith, Sarah-Jane; Gower, David J (2021-11-30). "Multilocus phylogeny, natural history traits and classification of natricine snakes (Serpentes: Natricinae)" . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 195 (1): 279–298. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab099. ISSN   0024-4082.