''Dendrelaphis pictus'', the common bronzeback, painted bronzeback, or Indonesian bronzeback, is a species of snake found in Southeast Asia and

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 ...

Description

In the painted bronzeback the maxillary teeth number from 23 to 26, the eye is as long as the distance between the nostril and eye. The

rostral scale The rostral scale, or rostral, in snakes and other scaled reptiles is the median plate on the tip of the snout that borders the mouth opening. Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: ...

is more broad than deep, and is visible from above.

Internasal scales In snakes, the internasal scales are those on top of the head between the scales that surround the nostrils. Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates. (7t ...

are as long as, or slightly shorter than, the praefrontal scales. The

frontal scale Frontal scale refers to the scales of a reptile which lie in the general region of the forehead of a snake, more specifically between the eyes and to the anterior of this area. These are analogous to the ''frontal bone'' on a human which correspo ...

is as long as its distance from the rostral or the tip of the snout, but shorter than the parietal scales. The loreal is long and there is one preocular and two postoculars. The

temporal scales Temporal may refer to: Entertainment * Temporal (band), an Australian metal band * ''Temporal'' (Radio Tarifa album), 1997 * ''Temporal'' (Love Spirals Downwards album), 2000 * ''Temporal'' (Isis album), 2012 * ''Temporal'' (video game), a 20 ...

are 2+2, 1+1, or 1+2. There are nine (seven or eight) upper labials, with the fifth and sixth (or fourth to sixth) entering the eye. This snake has five (four) lower labials in contact with the anterior chin shields the latter shorter than the posterior, which are separated by one anterior and two posterior scales. Scales are in 15 rows, vertebrals about as large as the outer. Ventrals number 151–204, the

anal scale Anal may refer to: Related to the anus *Related to the anus of animals: ** Anal fin, in fish anatomy ** Anal vein, in insect anatomy ** Anal scale, in reptile anatomy *Related to the human anus: ** Anal sex, a type of sexual activity involv ...

is divided, and subcaudals number 103–174. The snake's colouration is olive or brown above with a yellow lateral stripe, bordered below by a dark line between the outer scales and the ventrals. A black stripe on each side of the head passes through the eye, widens or breaks up into spots, separated by bluish-green bands on the nape. The upper lip is yellow, and the lower surface yellowish or greenish. Length of head and body approximately 740 mm and the tail 440 mm.Rooij, Nelly de. 1915. The reptiles of the Indo-Australian archipelago. Volume 2. Leiden. Image:Painted Bronzeback, Barpeta, Assam, India.jpg, Painted Bronzeback with prey from

Barpeta Barpeta (Pron: bə(r)ˈpeɪtə / bə(r)ˈpi:tə ) is a town in Barpeta district of the state of Assam in India and is district headquarters. The city is located north west of Guwahati and is one of the major cities in Western Assam. It is als ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Image:Dendrelaphis_pictus.jpg, Dendrelaphis pictus from Kaeng Krachan District,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Notes

References

* Anderson, J., 1871 On some Indian reptiles. Proc. Zool. Soc., London: pp. 149–211 * Das, I. 1999 Biogeography of the amphibians and reptiles of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. In: Ota, H. (ed) Tropical Island herpetofauna.., Elsevier, pp. 43–77 * Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789): escription of ''Dendrelaphis pictus'' ''In: Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (13th ed.)'' 1, part II. Georg Emanuel Beer, Lipsiae eipzig* How R A. Schmitt L H. Maharadatunkamsi. 1996 Geographical variation in the genus Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae) within the islands of south-eastern Indonesia. JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY (LONDON) 238 (2): pp. 351–363. * Meise, Wilhelm & Hennig, Willi 1932 Die Schlangengattung Dendrophis. Zool. Anz. 99 (11/12): pp. 273–297 * Stejneger, Leonhard 1933 The ophidian generic names Ahaetulla and Dendrophis. Copeia 1933 (4): pp. 199–203

External links

* * https://web.archive.org/web/20040907175456/http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/DENDRELAPHIS_PICTUS.JPG Snakes of Asia Snakes of Southeast Asia Reptiles of India Reptiles described in 1789 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin pictus {{Colubrids-stub