Hebius modestus (GÜNTHER, 1875)
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Hebius modestus
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Modest Keelback Chinese: 腹斑腹链蛇 |
| Synonym | Tropidonotus modestus GÜNTHER 1875: 232 Tropidonotus modestus — BOULENGER 1893: 229 Tropidonotus johannis SMITH 1921 (non BOULENGER; fide SMITH 1943) Nerodia modesta — WALL 1923 Natrix modesta — MELL 1929: 5 Natrix modesta modesta — BOURRET 1935: 3 Natrix modesta — SMITH 1943: 290 Amphiesma modesta — MALNATE 1960 Paranatrix modesta — MAHENDRA 1984 Amphiesma modesta — COX et al. 1998: 45 Amphiesma modestum — ZHAO et al. 2000: 205 Amphiesma modesta — SHARMA 2004 Amphiesma modestum — ZHAO 2006 Hebius modestum — GUO et al. 2014 Amphiesma modestus — GUO et al. 2014: 432 Hebius modesta — GUO et al. 2014: 428 Hebius modestum — GUO et al. 2014: 437 Amphiesma modestum — WALLACH et al. 2014: 31 Hebius modestus — ZHOU et al. 2019 Hebius modestus — DAVID et al. 2021 |
| Distribution | India (Meghalaya; Arunachal Pradesh), Myanmar (= Burma: Kachin; Shan), China (Yunnan) Type locality: Khasi Hills, India |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.13.41 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A moderately sized species of the genus Hebius characterized by the combination of (1) 19-19-17 dorsal scale rows, barely or weakly keeled at midbody and on the posterior part of the body, smooth on 1st DSR; (2) dorsal scales around the base of the tail weakly keeled; (3) head moderately distinct from the neck; (4) eye large; (5) maxillary teeth 27–30, the last two moderately enlarged; (6) tail long, with a ratio TaL/TL at least equal to 0.28 in females, up to 0.32 in males; (7) VEN 143–163; (8) SC 104–122; (9) prefrontal scales 2; (10) 1 or rarely 2 anterior temporals, rectangular and elongate; (11) venter pale ochre-brown or pale brown on a wide central area, broadly edged with dark brown or blackish on the outer quarter of ventrals, rarely entirely dark except on its most anterior part; (12) dorsal colour dark greyish-brown, brown or dark brown; (13) dorsum usually scattered with blackish-brown or black spots or blotches; (14) on each side, a more or less conspicuous, ochre-yellow, ochre-red, orange-brown or reddish-brown stripe, often reduced to a succession of elongate blotches on the anterior part of the body, extending from the nape to the base of the tail on 4th–7th or 5th–7th DSR, often but not always irregularly edged below and above by a series of large blackish-brown blotches; (15) no postocular streak; and (16) a short but broad, horizontal, pale yellowish-brown streak on the sides of the neck before the dorsolateral stripe, plus a streak on the nape behind the parietals (David et al. 2021). |
| Comment | Type species: Mahendra (1984) designated Tropidonotus modestus Günther 1875 as the type species of his genus Paranatrix. Distribution: possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012). Records from Vietnam are questionable according to DAVID et al. (2005). Not in Assam, Mizoram (India), not in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, not in Guizhou, Guangdong (China), not in Mizoram (India), the specimen depicted by Ahmed et al. (2009: 154) as Amphiesma cf. modestum is a specimen of Hebius venningi, fide P. David, pers. comm., 20 Apr 2021). |
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