Discovery and description of male specimen of Coluber bholanathi Sharma, 1976 (Reptilia: Colubridae) from Hyderabad, India

Abstract

Here we present the first report of the occurrence of an endemic and little known colubrid, Sharma's racer Coluber bholanathi Sharma, 1976, from the urban conglomerate of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, with a description of the male specimen including details on the hemipeneal structure.

<b>New distribution record of Nagarjunasagar Racer <I>Platyceps bholanathi</I> (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) in Sigur, Nilgiris landscape, India</b>

“…The specimen was found in a rocky habitat with dry thorn forests (Image 3), which is similar to earlier reported habitat of deciduous vegetation (Sharma 1976(Sharma , 2003, deciduous forest patch (Guptha et al 2012), rocky boulders or hillocks intermixed with sparsely scattered scrublands (Ganesh et al 2013), semi desert scrub forest containing evergreen thorny vegetation (Sharma et al 2013), scattered scrub vegetation and rocky outcrops (Seetharamaraju & Srinivasulu 2013) and mixture of dry deciduous scrub forest and thorn scrub (Smart et al 2014). This result clearly indicates the role of dry and rocky hills in supporting such species.…”

“…According to previous studies, the distribution of Platyceps bholanathi encompasses the discontinuous Eastern Ghats mountains in southern India, including the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (Sharma 1976;Guptha et al 2012;Ganesh et al 2013;Seetharamaraju & Srinivasulu 2013), Karnataka (Sharma et al 2013) and Tamil Nadu (Ganesh et al 2013;Smart et al 2014) …”

Report of Nagarjunasagar Racer Coluber bholanathi Sharma, 1976 (Squamata: Serpentes: Colubridae) from the Gingee Hills, Tamil Nadu, India

“…The Nagarjunasagar Racer (or Sharma's Racer) Coluber bholanathi Sharma, 1976 was described based on three specimens (one male holotype ZSI 21337 and two female paratypes ZSI 21335, ZSI 21336) which were collected from Nagarjuna Hills (16°31'N; 79°14'E; 105m) in Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh State, India (Sharma 1976(Sharma , 2003Gupta et al 2012;Ganesh et al 2013;Seetharamaraju & Srinivasulu 2013). Sharma (1976Sharma ( , 2003 states that this species is diurnal and found in rocky habitats covered in a mix of evergreen and deciduous xerophytic vegetation.…”

“…After several decades of obscurity, this species was recently reported from the Seshachalam Hills in southern Andhra Pradesh , Golconda Fort Complex in Hyderabad City, Devarakonda in Nalgonda District, both situated in central Andhra Pradesh (Ganesh et al 2013;Seetharamaraju & Srinivasulu 2013) and Thally in Krishnagiri District, northern Tamil Nadu (Ganesh et al 2013). In addition to reporting new localities for Coluber bholanathi, Gupta et al (2012) provided the first in-life illustration of this species, Seetharamaraju & Srinivasulu (2013) elaborated on the hemipineal morphology of the species as described by Sharma (2003) and Ganesh et al (2013) provided the first illustration of the holotype while clearing up some confusion about its type registration number.…”

“…In addition to reporting new localities for Coluber bholanathi, Gupta et al (2012) provided the first in-life illustration of this species, Seetharamaraju & Srinivasulu (2013) elaborated on the hemipineal morphology of the species as described by Sharma (2003) and Ganesh et al (2013) provided the first illustration of the holotype while clearing up some confusion about its type registration number. Cumulatively, these three works have shed some light on this poorly-understood species.…”