Abstract
We present new records of the Indian Sand Snake Psammophis condanarus from southern India, where its existence has remained doubtful till date. Our records are based on both live and preserved voucher specimens that are illustrated and described here. We furnish distribution records of this species from two sites belonging to two different ecoregions in southern India—Tirupati in the Eastern Ghats and Hospete in the Deccan plateau. Our work highlights the obscurity of certain, large-growing, diurnal land snakes that have as yet managed to evade the attention of field biologists largely due to a lack of field surveys in certain ecoregions.
Highlights
Psammophis condanarus was originally described as Coluber condanarus based on the plate of Russell (1796) which was drawn on the basis of material originating from Ganjam in the Circar coastal plains of the Indian peninsula (Merrem 1820)
Material and Methods This study is based on the examination of both live and preserved specimens, one each from the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan plateau
We attribute the Eastern Ghats and Deccan populations to P. condanarus based on the following combination of characters which are compared with all Indian congeners: anal scale divided, preocular not touching frontal, frontal anteriorly not twice as wide as at midline, nasal only partially divided
Summary
The Indian Sand Snake Psammophis condanarus (Merrem, 1820) is distributed in eastern, northern and central India including parts of the Himalayan foothills, Bengal, Indo-gangetic plains, northwestern arid desert zones including Pakistan and northern parts of the Deccan plateau (Stoliczka 1872; Murray 1886; Wall 1908; Minton 1966; Whitaker & Captain 2004; Chandra & Gajbe 2005), making it the most widespread species of the genus in the Indian subcontinent. There are some subjective junior synonyms namely Leptophis bellii Jerdon, 1853 from Jalna (19.83 N & 75.88 E) in Deccan Plateau, Psammophis taeniata Günther, 1862 from “India”, Psammophis indicus Beddome, 1863 from Nallamala
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