The genus Lycodon Boie, 1826 is represented by 15 species in India (Das, 2011; Mukherjee and Bhupathy, 2007; Siler et al., 2013). Occurrence of Lycodon aulicus, (Linnaeus, 1758), Lycodon fasciatus (Anderson, 1879), Lycodon laoensis (Günther, 1864), Lycodon jara (Shaw, 1802), Lycodon septentrionalis (Günther, 1858) and Lycodon gammiei (Blanford, 1878), and Lycodon zawi Slowinski, Pawar, Win, Thin, Gyi, Oo & Tun, 2001 has been confirmed from Northeast India (Ahmed et al., 2009).

Zaw’s wolf snake, Lycodon zawi was described from Myanmar and India, and is related to L. aulicus, L. laoensis and L. fasciatus in having 17 mid body scale rows and a banded pattern on dorsum. However, combination of characters such as a preocular scale present, loreal scale not in contact with internasal, anal scale divided, poorly developed white crossbands on a brownish black dorsum, and without a nape band (Slowinski et al., 2001) differentiate Lycodon zawi from its congeners.

Slowinski et al. (2001) reported the species from Myanmar: Sagaing Division (Alaungdaw Katapha National Park), Rakhine State (Gwa Township); India: Mizoram (Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary, Kaifung), Meghalaya (Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, Balpakram Tiger Reserve) and Assam (Garbhanga Reserved Forest). Recently, the species was reported from Bangladesh: Maulavi Bazar district (Lawachara National Park) by Kabir et al. (2009) and Reza (2010).

We herein report additional distribution records of Lycodon zawi from Northeast India (Fig. 1 and 2): Mizoram state, Aizawl district, Pachunga college campus, 23.723686° N, 92.731298° E, elevation 750

m, 1830h, male, moving slowly along the base of a 1.5 m high college campus wall bordering a degraded semi-evergreen forest; Meghalaya state, Ri-Bhoi district, Nongkhellym wildlife sanctuary, 25.925974˚ N, 91.815195°E, elevation 247 m, 6 July 2010, 2100h, male, among leaf litter of a teak plantation area; Assam state, Tinsukia District, Tinkopani Reserved forest, 27.36925˚ N, 95.961517° E, elevation 160 m msl, 24 April, 2012, female; found at 3.5 m above the ground on a rocky slope beside road on the way to a open cast coal mining spot.

Our study in Zoological survey of India, Kolkata revealed that a specimen (ZSI 4685) registered as L. aulicus is a typical example of L. zawi. The specimen was collected from Hailakandi district (District headquarter location: 24.682780˚ N, 92.564284° E) on 31 March 1880 by C. H. Dreyer (also see Sclater, 1891). Thus, ZSI 4685 becomes an earliest recorded specimen of the species.

The record of L. zawi from Tinkopani RF in Upper Assam represents an extension of the range of the species by ca. 425 km from the nearest Indian locality (Nongkhellym) and ca. 576 km. from the type locality in Myanmar. Also, this record becomes the northernmost distributional limit of the species so far and suggests occurrence of the species in intervening states (Nagaland, Manipur), especially in areas below 1000 m elevation and in bordering states such as Arunachal Pradesh in areas south of Brahmaputra river.

A male in the herpetological collection of the California Academy of Science (CAS 215494) collected from Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park in Myanmar is so far recorded as the largest specimen with a SVL 428 mm and TL 104 mm. Whitaker and Captain (2004) reported the maximum length as 480 mm for the species. However, in the present study the specimen recorded from Mizoram (see Table 1) appears to be the largest known individual for the species.

Herpetology Notes, volume 6: 263-265 (2013) (published online on 14 June 2013)

New distribution of records of Lycodon zawi (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Northeast India

Dipankar Dutta1, Saibal Sengupta1, Arup Kumar Das2 and Abhijit Das2,*

1 Department of Zoology, Arya Vidyapeeth College, Guwahati, Assam

2 Division of Herpetology, Aaranyak, Samanwoy Path, Survey, Beltola, Guwahati, Assam

* Corresponding author; protobothrops@gmail.com

Dipankar Dutta et al.264

Figure 1. Localities from where Lycodon zawi have been reported (●) and the additional records (■) form northeast India.

265New distribution of records of Lycodon zawi (Serpentes: Colubridae)

Acknowledgements. The survey is supported by Rufford Small grant Foundation, UK, and Assam Science Technology and Education Council, Guwahati. We sincerely thank Forest Officials of Digboi Forest Division, Assam for their kind cooperation. Our sincere thanks to B. H. C. K. Murthy, Curator, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for providing data of a specimen. Thanks to Deepak Veerappan, Chennai for pre-peer review of the manuscript.

References

Ahmed M.F., Das A., Dutta S.K. (2009): Amphibians and Reptiles of Northeast India. A Photographic Guide, Aaranyak, Guwahati, India.

Dowling, H.G. (1951): A proposed standard system of counting ventrals in snakes. British Journal of Herpetology 1: 97-99.

Das, I. (2012): Reptiles. Current 31 December 2011. In: Compendium on the occasion of DST 5th School in Herpetology. 24th February-19 March 2012. In memory of J. C. Daniel (July 9, 1927-August 23, 2011), p 63-80. Dutta, S.K. (Comp.). Takatpur, Baripada, North Orissa University.

Mukherjee, D., Bhupathy, S. (2007): A new species of wolf snake (Serpentes: Colubridae: Lycodon) from Anaikatti Hills, Western Ghat, Tamil Nadu, India. Russian Journal of Herpetology 14 (1): 21-26.

Kabir S.M.H., Ahmed M., Ahmed A.T.A., Rahman A.K.A., Ahmed Z.U., Begum Z.N.T., Hassan M.A., Khondker M. (2009): Encyclopedia of the Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh. 25. Amphibians and Reptiles. Dhaka, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

Reza, A.H.M.A. (2010): Colubrid Snake Lycodon zwai (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Lawachara National Park in Bangladesh. Russian Journal of Herpetology 17(1): 75-77.

Siler, C.D., Oliveros C.H., Santanan A., Brown R.M. (2013). Multilocus phylogeny reveals unexpected diversification in Asian wolf Snake (Genus Lycodon). Zoological Scripta. 42(3): 262-277.

Slowinski, J.B., Pawar, S.S., Win, H., Thin, T., Tun, H., Gyi, S.W., Oo, S.L., Tun, H. (2001): A new Lycodon (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Northeast India and Myanmar (Burma). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 52: 397-405.

Sclater W.L. (1891): List of Snakes in the Indian Museum. Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press.

Whitaker R., Captain A. (2004): Snakes of India. The Field Guide. Chennai, Draco Books.

Accepted by Philip de Pous

Table 1. Morphometry and scalation of Lycodon zawi recorded during this study. Abbreviations

used: SVL: Snout to vent length, TL: Tail length, SL: Supralabials (number of SL touching eye),

IL: Infralabials (number of IL touching 1st chin shield), DSR: Dorsal Scale Rows (counted at one

head length behind head, at midbody and one head length before vent),V: Ventral [counted after

(Dowling, 1951)], SC: Subcaudals (excludes terminal scutes), A: Anal scale, NS: Not sexed, “+”:

subcaudals missing.

Hailakandi Nongkhellym Pachunga Tinkupani

Sex NS M M F SVL 432 510 560 355 TL 112 115 112+ 65 SL 9 (3-5) 9 (3-5) 9 (3-5) 9 (4-5) IL 9/10 (1-4) 9/9 (1-4) 9/9 (1-4) 9/9 (1-4)

DSR 17:17:15 17:17:15 17:17:15 17:17:15 V 190 194 192 204

SC 51 58 43+ 49 A 2 2 2 2

Figure 2. Dorsolateral view of Lycodon zawi from Pachunga College Campus, Mizoram, India.

Table 1. Morphometry and scalation of Lycodon zawi recorded during this study. Abbreviations used: SVL: Snout to vent length, TL: Tail length, SL: Supralabials (number of SL touching eye), IL: Infralabials (number of IL touching 1st chin shield), DSR: Dorsal Scale Rows (counted at one head length behind head, at midbody and one head length before vent),V: Ventral [counted after (Dowling, 1951)], SC: Subcaudals (excludes terminal scutes), A: Anal scale, NS: Not sexed, “+”: subcaudals missing.