Kingdom Animalia Order Squamata Family Colubridae Scientific name Coluber bholanathi Rank Species | Phylum Chordata Suborder Serpentes Subfamily Colubrinae Higher classification Coluber | |
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Similar Coluber gracilis, Snake, Coluber, Colubridae, Reptile | ||
Nagarjun Sagar Racer, (also known as Sharma's Racer) Coluber bholanathi, is a species of colubrid snake, found in peninsular India, in the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan plateau. It is a diurnal, fast-moving, active snake, living among rock boulders. It feeds on lizards, small mammals, and birds. It is a rather recently described species, that was first discovered in 1976, in the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam by scientists of the Zoological Survey of India.
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Description
A slender snake; rich brown above with white, black-edged rounded or ovoid spots on the back; underside white; dorsal scales in 19:19:12-15 rows around body, ventrals 202–212; subcaudals 109–121.
Distribution
This species is known from Nagarjuna Sagar Dam in Telangana, Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Bellary in Karnataka and Gingee and Hosur in Tamil Nadu, essentially covering all of the rocky hillocks and outcrops in south India.