Platyplectrurus Trilineatus
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''Platyplectrurus trilineatus'', commonly known as the tri-striped shield-tail snake or the lined thorntail snake, is a species of uropeltid snake endemic to the Western Ghats of Southern India. Like most other shieldtail snakes, it is presumed to be a
nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
,
fossorial A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, and mole salamanders, as well as many beetles, wasps, and bees. Prehistoric eviden ...
snake inhabiting
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 ...
. A very rare snake, about which nothing is known in terms of live colouration and natural history.


Geographic range

It is found in southern India in the southern Western Ghats in the
Anamalai Hills The Anamala or Anaimalai, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats of central Kerala (Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district) and span the border of western ...
of Kerala and Tamil Nadu states. Type locality of ''Plectrurus trilineatus'': "Anamally forests; elevation 4,000 feet". Type locality of ''Platyplectrurus bilineatus'': "Madura Hills".


Description

Adults are reddish brown or brick-red dorsally, with three black stripes, which may be either continuous or interrupted. The young are dark brown or black dorsally, with two or more narrow yellowish stripes, yellowish ventrally, with a brown dot on each ventral scale. Juveniles also have yellowish transverse markings behind the shielded part of the head, which may resemble an incomplete collar. Adults may attain a total length of . Dorsal scales arranged in 15 rows at midbody (in 17 rows behind the head). Ventrals 163-175; subcaudals 8-16. Snout broadly rounded. Rostral small, but visible from above. Frontal longer than broad. Supraocular much larger than the eye, longer than the prefrontal. One elongated temporal, which is 2/3 or 3/5 the length of the parietal. Ventrals nearly two times as broad as the contiguous scales. Dorsal scales of the tail smooth or a few of the terminal ones weakly bicarinate or tricarinate. Terminal scute with a transverse ridge which is less distinct in females. Boulenger, G.A. 1893. ''Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Uropeltidae...'' Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. pp. 165-166, Plate XI, figures 1, 1a., 1b., 1c.


Footnotes


Further reading

* Beddome, R.H. 1867. Descriptions and figures of Five New Snakes from the Madras Presidency. Madras Quart. J. Med. Sci., 11: 14-16. eprint: J. Soc. Bibliogr. Nat. Sci., London, 1 (10): 315- 317, 1940.* Beddome, R.H. 1886. An Account of the Earth-Snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 17: 3-33. * Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.


External links

* Uropeltidae Reptiles described in 1867 {{Alethinophidia-stub