Xenochrophis cerasogaster

Taxobox | name = Painted Keelback
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regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia
ordo = Squamata
subordo = Serpentes
familia = Colubridae
genus = "Xenochrophis"
species = "X. cerasogaster"
binomial = "Xenochrophis cerasogaster"
binomial_authority = (Cantor, 1839)
synonyms = "Psammophis cerasogaster" Cantor, 1839 [Cantor, 1839. P. Z. S. p. 62]
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Painted Keelback "Xenochrophis cerasogaster" is a species of Colubrid snake found in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and India (Assam, Uttar Pradesh). This snake is also called the "Dark Bellied Marsh Snake."

Description

:"See snake scales for terminology"Head narrow, elongate, with angular "canthus rostralis" and slightly concave lores; eye moderate or rather small. Rostral once and one third to twice as broad as long; suture between the internasals nearly as long as that between the prefrontals; frontal much longer than its distance from the end of the snout, as long as the parietals; lorealas long as deep or a little longer than deep; one preocular; two or three postoculars and one or two sub-oculars ; temporals 2+2 or 2+3 ; upper labials 9, fourth (rarely fifth) entering the eye; 5 or 6 lower labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields, which are as long as the posterior or a little shorter. Scales strongly keeled, in 19 rows, ventrals 140-151; anal divided; subcaudals 60-70. Brown above, with or without darker spots and with a more or less distinct paler dorso-lateral band, lower parts cherry-red to purplish black, with a yellowband on each side extending irom the lips to the end of the tail. Total length 2 feet, tail 5.5 inches. [Boulenger, G. A. 1890. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia.]

Notes

References

* Günther, Albert. Fauna of British India. Reptiles. [http://www.strangeark.com/ebooks/IndiaHerps.pdf]
* Cantor, T. E. 1839 Spicilegium serpentium indicorum [parts 1 and 2] . Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 7: 31-34, 49-55.

External links

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