The Malabar vine snake (''Ahaetulla malabarica''), is a species of tree

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the southern portion of the central Western Ghats of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Taxonomy

It was formerly considered conspecific with '' A. nasuta'', which is now considered to only be endemic to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. A 2020 study found ''A. nasuta'' to be a species complex of ''A. nasuta

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'' as well as '' A. borealis'', '' A. farnsworthi'', '' A. isabellina'', and ''A. malabarica''.

Geographic range

This species is distributed in the southern portion of the central Western Ghats, from the

Palghat Gap Palakkad Gap or Palghat Gap is a low mountain pass in the Western Ghats between Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Palakkad in Kerala. It has an average elevation of with a width of . The pass is located between the Nilgiri Hills to the north and ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

north to

Tadiandamol Tadiandamol or Thadiyandamol is the highest mountain of Madikeri taluk Kodagu district, Karnataka, India. It is the third highest peak in Karnataka, after Mullayyanagiri & Kudremukha. It is located Western Ghats range, and reaches an elevation ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. ''A. farnsworthi'' is found to the north of the species' range and may be

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

with it at

Coorg Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

(although largely separated by rivers), while ''A. isabellina'' is found to the south of the species' range, being separated from it by the Palghat Gap.

Habitat

The species is found in mid-elevation

evergreen forests An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zon ...

in the Western Ghats from ~650 to 1400 msl.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q102109394 Ahaetulla Reptiles of India Snakes of Asia Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Reptiles described in 2020