Kingdom Animalia Family Colubridae Scientific name Amphiesma pealii Higher classification Amphiesma Order Scaled reptiles | Suborder Serpentes Genus Amphiesma Phylum Chordata Rank Species | |
Similar Amphiesma xenura, Amphiesma, Colubridae, Snake, Amphiesma monticola | ||
Amphiesma pealii, commonly known as the Assam keelback, is a species of natricine snake endemic to India.
Contents
Etymology
The specific name, pealii, is in honor of Samuel E. Peal (died 1897), an ethnographer and tea planter in Assam, who collected the two specimens from which British zoologist William Lutley Sclater described this snake as a species new to science.
Geographic range
A. pealii is found in the Indian state of Assam. It has also been recorded in bordering regions of Assam.
Description
Amphiesma pealii may attain a total length of 50 cm (19⅝ inches), which includes a tail 12.5 cm (4⅞ inches) long.
Dorsally it is dark brown. On each side are two light stripes, an upper narrow one, and a broader lower one, which is two scales wide. The top of the head is dark brown. The rostral, the upper labials, and the lower labials are yellow, blotched and edged with brown. The ventrals are very dark brown, marked with light yellow laterally. There is also a faint yellow stripe along the center of the ventrals, which becomes more distinct posteriorly.
The dorsal scales are strongly keeled (less strongly in the outermost row), and arranged in 19 rows at midbody. Ventrals 142-144; anal plate entire; subcaudals 75-77, divided.