''Trimerodytes percarinatus'', commonly known as the eastern water snake, olive keelback, olive annulate keelback or Chinese keelback water snake, 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 snake in 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 ...

Taxonomy

The type locality for ''T. percarinatus'' is Guadun (formerly spelled as Kuatun),

Wuyishan City Wuyishan City ( zh, c=武夷山市, p=Wǔyíshān Shì) is a county-level city in the municipal region of Nanping, in the northwest of Fujian, People's Republic of China, which borders Jiangxi to the northwest. It corresponds to the former Chong'a ...

(former Chongan County) in NW

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 ...

, China.

Subspecies

The

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

''Trimerodytes percarinatus suriki'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Taiwan where it occurs in the whole country.

Description

''T. percarinatus'' is a defensive snake that bites readily when caught, but it is not venomous. It is a medium-sized snake, typically attaining a total length (including tail) of , but may grow up to . An adult female usually lays 4 to 13 eggs, but may lay as many as 25 eggs.

Distribution and habitat

''T. percarinatus'' is found in NE India (Changlang District, Arunachal Pradesh), Myanmar (= Burma), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, S China (Hainan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei), Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It is an aquatic species associated with hilly areas.

Diet

''T. percarinatus'' preys on shrimps, frogs (including tadpoles), and fish.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Description

Distribution and habitat

Diet

References

Further reading