''Dendrelaphis oliveri'', commonly known as Oliver's bronzeback, 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 ...

of nonvenomous

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

snake in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Colubridae Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ever ...

. The species 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 ...

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 ...

. It is considered to be the rarest of the Sri Lankan

Dendrelaphis ''Dendrelaphis'' is a genus of colubrid snakes, distributed from Pakistan, India and southern China to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There are over forty described species. Asian species ...

species on account of there being only a single recorded specimen.Danushka, A Dineth & Kanishka, A Suneth & Amarasinghe, A. A. Thasun & Vogel, Gernot & Seneviratne, Sampath. (2020). A NEW SPECIES OF Dendrelaphis BOULENGER, 1890 (REPTILIA: COLUBRIDAE) FROM THE WET ZONE OF SRI LANKA WITH A REDESCRIPTION OF Dendrelaphis bifrenalis (BOULENGER, 1890). 9. 83-102. 10.47605/tapro.v9i1.224.

Etymology

Both the specific name, ''oliveri'', and the common name, Oliver's bronzeback, are in honor of

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

James A. Oliver.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael(2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Dendrelaphis oliveri'', p. 194).

Description

Similar to other bronzebacks, ''D. oliveri'' has enlarged

dorsal scales In snakes, the dorsal scales are the longitudinal series of plates that encircle the body, but do not include the ventral scales. Campbell JA, Lamar WW (2004). ''The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publis ...

, large eyes relative to its head size, a clearly differentiated head from body, a long slender body with a long tail. It can be identified from its Sri Lankan cogeners by the combination of a lack of a

loreal scale The lore (adj. loreal) is the region between the eyes and nostrils of birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Ornithology In ornithology, the lore is the region between the eye and bill on the side of a bird's head. This region is sometimes featherles ...

, the prefrontals contacting the 2nd, 3rd and 4th

supralabials In reptiles, the supralabial scales, also called upper-labials, are those scales that border the mouth opening along the upper jaw. They do not include the median scaleWright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. Comstock Publishing Associates ( ...

and the 4th, 5th and 6th supralabials contacting the eye. Furthermore, it has an eye stripe that begins post-nasal and continues past the eye through to the base of the tail. Below this black ventrolateral line is a white ventrolateral line beginning at the posterior supralabials and continuing to the tail. This white ventrolateral is bordered below by another black ventrolateral that begins at the neck and continues to the tail. The lack of a loreal scale is a character ''D. oliveri'' shares with '' D. effrenis'' in Sri Lanka. However, ''D. oliveri'' can be further identified from ''D. effrenis'' by its colour patterns and the following characters: prefrontals contacting the 2nd, 3rd and 4th supralabials (vs only 2nd and 3rd), the presence of a ventrolateral stripe (vs absent) and 2

postoculars In Squamata, scaled reptiles, the ocular scales are those forming the margin of the eye.Wright AH, Wright AA. 1957. ''Handbook of Snakes''. Comstock Publishing Associates (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. . The name originates from the term ''oculus ...

(vs 3). The lack of a loreal scale is a character that is occasionally seen within the ''Dendrelaphis'' genus as an anomaly, but in the case of ''D. oliveri'', this in combination with the presence of a black-white-black ventrolateral is unique to it, and with ''D. effrenis'', all recorded specimens showed a lack of a loreal scale. These observations show, that the lack of a loreal scale is a key identifier of these two species.Wickramasinghe, Mendis. (2016). A new canopy-dwelling species of Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Sinharaja, World Heritage Site, Sri Lanka. Zootaxa. 4162. 504. 10.11646/zootaxa.4162.3.5.

Distribution

Only one single specimen of ''D. oliveri'' has ever been recorded, and that is E. H. Taylor's original specimen from 1950. The specimen currently resides at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. The type-locality for ''D. oliveri'' is stated as north of

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; ta, திருகோணமலை, translit=Tirukōṇamalai; si, ත්‍රිකුණාමළය, translit= Trikuṇāmaḷaya), also known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee Dis ...

based on Taylor's original catalog notes. However, this cannot be verified as no other specimen has been ever found since in the area. Therefore, it is possible that ''D. oliveri'' is not from this area and for that matter not from even Sri Lanka.

Behavior

''D. oliveri'' is arboreal and diurnal.

Reproduction

''D. oliveri'' is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

Etymology

Description

Distribution

Behavior

Reproduction

References

Further reading