:''Common names: Anaimalai earth snake, Anamally earth snake, Ponachi shieldtail'' ''Uropeltis macrorhyncha'' is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family

Uropeltidae The Uropeltidae, also known Common name, commonly as the shieldtails or the shield-tailed snakes, are a Family (biology), family of primitive, nonvenomous, burrowing snakes native to peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The name is derived from the Gr ...

. The species is endemic to India. There are no

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

that are recognized as being valid.

Geographic range

''U. macrorhyncha'' is found in southern India in the Western Ghats: Anaimalai Hills, Madura District. The type locality given is "Anamullay Mountains, 4,000 feet elevation." Also, Beddome, 1886, gives a type locality of "Anamallays, dense forests above Ponachi, at an elevation of 4000 feet.

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of ''U. macrorhyncha'' is forest, at an altitude of about .

Description

The dorsum of ''U. macrorhyncha'' is brown. There is a yellow streak from the mouth along each side of the neck. There is a yellow streak on each side of the tail, connected by a yellow crossbar across the vent. The venter is brown mixed with yellow. The type specimen is in total length (including tail). The dorsal scales are in 19 rows behind the head, in 17 rows at midbody. The type specimen, a female, has 213

ventrals In snakes, the ventral scales or gastrosteges are the enlarged and transversely elongated scales that extend down the underside of the body from the neck to the anal scale. When counting them, the first is the anteriormost ventral scale that cont ...

, and 6 subcaudals. The snout is acutely pointed, strongly projecting. The

rostral Rostral may refer to: Anatomy * Rostral (anatomical term), situated toward the oral or nasal region * Rostral bone, in ceratopsian dinosaurs * Rostral organ, of certain fish * Rostral scale, in snakes and scaled reptiles Other uses * Rostral colu ...

is strongly laterally compressed, keeled above, ½ the length of the shielded part of the head. The nasals are narrowly in contact behind the rostral. The frontal is as broad as long. The eye is very small, less than ⅓ the length of the ocular shield. The diameter of body goes 38 times into the total length. The ventrals are slightly less than two times as large as the contiguous scales. The end of the tail is subtruncate, the keeled dorsal portion small and rather flat, the scales with 3-5 strong keels. The terminal scute has two points.

Reproduction

''U. macrorhyncha'' is ovoviviparous."''Uropeltis macrorhyncha''". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

References

* Beddome, R.H. (1877). "Descriptions of three new Snakes of the Family Uropeltidæ from Southern India". ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 1877: 167–168. (''Silybura macrorhyncha'', new species, pp. 167–168). *Beddome, R.H. (1886). "An Account of the Earth-Snakes of the Peninsula of India and Ceylon". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Fifth Series'' 17: 3–33. (''Silybura macrorhyncha'', p. 19). * Mahendra, B.C. (1984). "Handbook of the snakes of India, Ceylon, Burma, Bangladesh and Pakistan". ''Annals of Zoology (Agra)'' 22 (B): i–xvi, 1–412. * Sharma, R.C. (2003). ''Handbook: Indian Snakes''. Kolkata: Zoological Survey of India. 292 pp. . * Smith, M.A. (1943). ''The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes.'' London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (''Uropeltis macrorhynchus'', new combination, p. 78). * Whitaker, R.; Captain, A. (2008). ''Snakes of India: The Field Guide''. Chennai: Draco Books. 495 pp. .

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