The Mizoram Ground Snake (''Blythia hmuifang''), is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 ...

in the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Colubroidea Colubroidea is a superfamily of snakes in the clade Colubroides that includes Colubridae, with some studies splitting Colubridae into multiple families that make up Colubroidea. Historically, Colubroidea also included other caenophidian snakes su ...

. It is

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 ...

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...

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 ...

Etymology

The specific name ''hmuifang'' came in honor of the people of the Hmuifang village.

Description

The species can identified from ''

Blythia reticulata ''Blythia reticulata'', commonly known as Blyth's reticulate snake, Blyth's reticulated snake, or the iridescent snake, is a species of snake in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae of the superfamily Colubroidea. The species is end ...

'', by having 114–117 ventral scales and 20–21 subcaudal scales in males. Smaller snakes have bright orange-red venter and older snakes have creamy venter.

References

hmuifang Hmuifang is a tourist spot near Aizawl, Mizoram. It is about 50 km from Aizawl. With an elevation of 1619 metres the mountain is covered with forests reserves since all the Mizo Chief's time. History Hmuifang Tourist resort has been built ...

Endemic fauna of India Reptiles of India Reptiles described in 2017 Snakes of Asia {{Snake-stub