Lycodon gammiei explained

Lycodon gammiei, commonly known as Gammie's wolf snake or the Sikkim false wolf snake, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to India.

Etymology

The specific name, gammiei, is in honor of naturalist James Alexander Gammie (1839–1924), who managed a Cinchona plantation in Darjeeling from 1865 to 1897.^[1]

Geographic range

Lycodon gammiei is found in northern India, in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, and in Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal.

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of L. gammiei is forest.

Description

At first glance, Gammie's wolf snake resembles the venomous kraits. Its body is encircled by alternating dark and light rings with irregular margins. Its head is dark olive, and there are light spots in the center of most head shields. It has an imperfect pale collar, and the underside of the head and neck are whitish. Adults are about 80 cm (32 inches) in total length (including tail).^[2]

Reproduction

L. gammiei is oviparous.

Further reading

• Blanford WT (1878). "Notes on some Reptilia from the Himalayas and Burma". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 47 (part 2): 125–131. (Ophites gammiei, new species, pp. 130–131). (in English and Latin).
• Boulenger GA (1890). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 541 pp. (Lycodon gammiei, new combination, p. 296).
• Siler, Cameron D.

Oliveros, Carl H.; Santanen, Anssi; Brown, Rafe M. (2013). "Multilocus phylogeny reveals unexpected diversification patterns in Asian wolf snakes (genus Lycodon)". Zoologica Scripta 42: 262–277.

• Wall F (1923). "A Hand-list of the Snakes of the Indian Empire. Part 2". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 29: 598–632. (Dinodon gammiei, new combination, p. 615).
• Smith MA (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. (Dinodon gammiei, p. 271).
• Mistry V (2007). "Rediscovery of the Sikkim False Wolf Snake". Hornbill (Jul–Sep): 18–19.
• Mistry V, Vogel G, Tillack F (2007). "Rediscovery of Dinodon gammiei (BLANFORD 1878) (Serpentes, Colubridae), with description of its validity". Hamadryad 31 (2): 265–273
• Agarwal I, Mistry VK, Athreya R (2010). "A preliminary checklist of the reptiles of Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh, India". Russian Journal of Herpetology 17 (2): 81–93.
• Athreya R (2006). Eaglenest Biodiversity Project (2003 – 2006): Conservation resources for Eaglenest wildlife sanctuary. Pune: Kaati Trust. 196 pp.

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20140826121733/http://naturecon.org/index.php/eaglenest-sanctuary/biodiversity-discoveries/the-darjeeling-false-wolf-snake-dinodon-gammiei-a-rediscovered-snake

Notes and References

1. [species:Bo Beolens|Beolens, Bo]
2. [George Albert Boulenger|Boulenger GA]