The buff striped keelback (''Amphiesma stolatum'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of nonvenomous

colubrid Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from , 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest fossil species of the family date back to the Late Eocene epoch, with earlier origins suspected. Colu ...

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

found across Asia. It is a typically non-aggressive snake that feeds on

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

s and

toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...

s. It belongs to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Natricinae The Natricinae are a subfamily of colubroid snakes, sometimes referred to as a family (Natricidae). The subfamily comprises 36 genera. Members include many very common snake species, such as the European grass snakes, and the North American wa ...

, and is closely related to water snakes and

grass snake The grass snake (''Natrix natrix''), sometimes called the ringed snake or water snake, is a Eurasian semi-aquatic non- venomous colubrid snake. It is often found near water and feeds almost exclusively on amphibians. Subspecies Many subspecie ...

s. It resembles an Asian version of the American

garter snake Garter snake is the common name for small to medium-sized snakes belonging to the genus ''Thamnophis'' in the Family (biology), family Colubridae. They are native to North America, North and Central America, ranging from central Canada in the no ...

. It is quite a common snake but is rarely seen.

Anatomy and morphology

A small, slender snake, the buff striped keelback is generally olive-brown to gray in colour. The head and the body are of the same colour. The body of the buff striped keelback is short, and it has a long slender tail which is almost a quarter of its length. Two yellow stripes along the length and to the sides of the spine are the distinctive feature of this snake. These stripes are diffuse at the head and are especially bright on the second half of its body. The keelback has irregular blackish crossbars on the body. Near the head the crossbars are prominent, whereas on the second half of the snake they become diffuse. The sides of the head are yellow, and the head tapers to form a distinctive neck. The nape is red during the breeding season. The chin and throats are white or sometimes orange. There are black vertical markings in front of and behind the large eyes. The eyes have large round pupils with golden flecks on the iris. The forked tongue is black. The underside is pale cream and has small black spots scattered along both the margins. It has

keeled scales Keeled Scales is an independent record label based in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2014 by musicians Tony Presley (Real Live Tigers) and Seth Whaland (Literature, Tres Oui). The label has released over 60 albums from artists such as Buck Mee ...

on the

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

surface of the body.

Morphs

There are two distinct colour varieties – a typical variety, found everywhere, with grayish-blue interscale colour. The second variety, ''erythrostictus'', is common mainly in coastal areas and has bright vermillion interscale colour. The interscale colours become visible only when the snake puffs itself up when agitated.

Identifying characteristics

# The nasal shield does not touch the second supralabial (upper lip shield). # The rostral touches a total of 6 shields. These are two inter-nasals, two nasals and the first supralabial on each side. # Presence of single temporal shield. # Nineteen rows of costals which are strongly keeled except for the outer row which is perfectly smooth. # Presence of stripes. # Ventrals 125–161. # Anal divided. # Subcaudals 50–85.

Size

The Buff Striped keelback is usually 40 to 50 cm (about 16 to 20 inches) in total length. The maximum length recorded is . Females are consistently longer than the males which only rarely reach in length.

Distribution

The buff striped keelback is found throughout

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. Its range extends from Pakistan (

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

) to Sri Lanka, India (including the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

), Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia (

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

), Taiwan and China (

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

). It is also found in Bhutan. In India, the snake is found up to an altitude of .

Conservation status

The buff striped keelback is common throughout its range, and is not of international conservation concern.

Ecology and life history

Habitat

This terrestrial, diurnal snake inhabits well-watered lowland plains and hills

Feeding ecology

The primary diet of adult ''A. stolatum'' is small

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s such as

s and

s, but they are also known to consume

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, earthworms and geckos.

Life history

Striped Keelback By Capt Suresh Sharma IMG 1183

Keelbacks are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

. Mating is thought to take place during the

aestivation Aestivation ( (summer); also spelled estivation in American English) is a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and a lowered m ...

period. Gravid females have been found from April to August and eggs are laid in underground holes from May to September. The snake lays a clutch of 5 to 10 pure white eggs. Females remain with eggs till they hatch. The young snakes are 13 to 17 cm at birth and eat small

tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...

s, fish, earthworms and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

Behavior

The buff striped keelback is diurnal, and although mostly seen on land, it can readily take to water. It has long rear teeth for catching frogs and toads. The buff striped keelback is nonvenomous and totally harmless. When alarmed, it inflates its body causing the bright interscale colours to be exposed. Sometimes, the snake flattens and narrows its head to form a hood. This behaviour sometimes causes the species to be mistaken by laypersons for a baby cobra. The snake aestivates during hot weather and appears at the end of summer. It is abundant during the rains. In north India, the striped keelback hibernates 25 to 45 cm (about 10 to 18 inches) under the ground in soil, amongst grass roots.

Gallery

Image:AB018_buff_striped_keelback.jpg, A buff-striped keelback (normal form) Image:AB023_buff_striped_keelback_6.jpg, The body of the snake Image:AB022_buff_striped_keelback_5.jpg, The snake being held by the head Image:AB021_buff_striped_keelback_4.jpg, The snake twisting its head while being held.

References

Bibliography

* 1890. ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia''. Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, Printers). London. xviii + 541 pp. (''Tropidonotus stolatus'', pp. 348–349.) * 1893. ''Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Colubridæ Aglyphæ, Part.'' Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, Printers). London. xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I.-XXVIII. (''Tropidonotus stolatus'', pp. 253–254.) * ; , ; & . 1998. ''A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand''. Ralph Curtis Publishing. Sanibel Island, Florida. 144 pp. * 2002. ''Book of Indian Reptiles and Amphibians''. BNHS. Oxford University Press. Mumbai. * 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. * 2002. ''A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of India''. Ralph Curtis Books. Sanibel Island, Florida. 144 pp. . ''(Amphiesma stolatum'', p. 19.) * 1758. ''Systema Naturae''. 10th Edition: 204 pp. * 1921. ''Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon''. Colombo Museum. (H.R. Cottle, government printer). Colombo. xxii + 581 pp. * 2006. ''Common Indian Snakes - A Field Guide''. Revised edition. MacMillan India Ltd. New Delhi.

External links

*
Museum Adolphi Friderici

* * * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q2370818, from2=Q2384149 Amphiesma Snakes of Vietnam Snakes of Southeast Asia Reptiles of Myanmar Reptiles of Cambodia Reptiles of China Reptiles of India Reptiles of Laos Reptiles of Nepal Reptiles of Pakistan Reptiles of the Philippines Reptiles of Sri Lanka Reptiles of Taiwan Reptiles of Thailand Reptiles of Vietnam Reptiles described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Reptiles of Borneo