Beauty Snake

Description

Morphological characters of the specimen from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, agreed with the descriptions of Smith (1943) and Schulz (2010): SVL 506 mm, TaL 127 mm (n = 1). Body cylindrical; head moderately distinct from neck; eye large, pupil round; rostral as broad as high, visible from above; internasals broad larger than long; prefrontal about two-thirds of frontal; parietals as long as wide; nasal divided; loreal 1/1; preoculars 2/2; postoculars 3/3, bordering anterior temporals; anterior temporals 1/1; posterior temporals 2/2; supralabials 9/9, fifth and sixth touching the eye, eighth-largest; infralabials 12/12, first to sixth bordering chin shields; dorsal scale rows 25–25–21, keeled from the eighth row, laterally smooth; ventrals 275; cloacal scale divided; subcaudals 112, paired. Colouration in preservative. Dorsal surface of head and body brownish above, the head and neck uniform, with a black stripe on each side of the head, broadest behind the eye; anterior part of the back with a vertebral series of large black butterfly-shaped spots and smaller diamond-shaped ones on lateral; posterior part of back with a pale grey vertebral stripe, 3 or 4 scales wide and a broad bla

New records and an updated list of reptiles from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam

Ecology

The subadult was found at 20:00 h on the forest floor. The surrounding habitat was evegreen forest.

New records and an updated list of reptiles from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam

Distribution

In Vietnam, this is a widespread species known, from Lao Cai and Cao Bang Provinces in the north, southwards to Kon Tum and Gia Lai Provinces (Nguyen et al. 2009). This species is also known from India, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Korea, Myanmar, W Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan (Uetz et al. 2024). Type locality: China: Zhejiang, Ningbo; Ningpo and Siam; Siam, Ningpo (Uetz et al. 2024).

New records and an updated list of reptiles from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam

discussion

Remarks. There are no specimens or reported observations of E. taeniura from Singapore. The records above all likely refer to Sworder’s (1923) record of C. cf. subradiatus, but we cannot be certain. Schulz (2013) mentioned a specimen of E. taeniura (ZRC 2.4560) from Pulau Ubin, however, examination of that specimen revealed it was collected in Cameron Highlands. Elaphe taeniura occupies a very broad geographic range spanning from southeastern Russia south through China and the Ryukyu Islands in Japan, west to Myanmar, Bhutan, and northeastern India, and south to Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo (Wallach et al. 2014). LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. No specimens.

Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution