A new species of wolf snake discovered in Odisha has been acknowledged by The Russian Journal of Herpetology and has been named ‘lycodon Odishii’.
The species was acknowledged by the journal on Friday, revealed Snake Helpline honorary secretary Subhendu Mallick to the media here.He informed that he and Dr Siba Prasad Parida had captured the rare species at a school in the Tangipali industrial area in Brahmapur on July 5, 2013. They had handed over the snake to the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
The rare variety of snake has strong resemblances with lycodon Jara. However, while Jara has no yellow mark on its fang, the new species has a yellow mark on its head, informed Mallick.They had prepared a thesis making a case for its recognition as a new species, which was approved by the Russian journal, Mallick said.
Apart from Mallik and Parida, the others involved in the discovery of the species are Ashis Kumar Mohanty, Asutosh Mallik, Kamal lochan Purohit, Siddhartha Mohanty, Shakti Nanda, Sadhwi Sindura, Swetashree Purohit, Anuja Tarini Mishra and Sujata Sahoo.
The Russian journal says, “Morphologically, the new species is most similar to lycodon Jara but differs by its well-defined collar. The collar is white in hatchlings and white with yellow blotches on the dorsal side in juveniles and adults. The snout is projected beyond the lower jaw (vs. not beyond as in l. Jara). The post-oculars are one or two (vs. 2 always in l. Jara). Twin spots are present on each scale of the body except the 6 - 7 rows of scales in the collar region (vs. each scale in l. Jara).
The colour of twin spots is white in hatchlings and yellow in adults in the new species. The yellow tinges on the head shields are much less as compared to l. Jara in the adults of the new species.”