Occurrence
of Dinodon gammiei (Blanford, 1878) in Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya, India
Basundhara Chettri1 & S. Bhupathy 2
1,2 Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatti
(PO), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India
Email: 1 basundharac@gmail.com; 2 (corresponding
author) bhupathy_s@yahoo.com
Date of online publication 26 January 2009
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: Karthikeyan
Vasudevan
Manuscript details:
Manuscript # o1960; Received 07 March 2008; Final revised received
16 October 2008; Finally accepted 21 October 2008
Citation: Chettri, B.
& S. Bhupathy (2009). Occurrence of Dinodon gammiei (Blanford, 1878)
in Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1(1):
60-61.
Copyright: © B.
Chettri & S. Bhupathy 2009. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for
non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit
to the authors and the source of publication.
Acknowledgement: We
are grateful to the Department of Forests, Environment and Wildlife Management,
and Department of Home, Government of Sikkim for permission to carryout this
work in the state. We thank the Ministry
of Environment and Forests, Government of India and Centre for
Interdisciplinary Studies of Mountain and Hill Environment, Delhi University
for financial grant. We thank the
Director, ZSI for permission to examine specimen deposited at the ZSI museum,
Kolkata and to Dr. C.K. Murthy and Mrs. Gouri Dasgupta, Reptilia Section and
Dr. Pankaj Bhatnagar, ZSI for help and curatorial assistance. Support of
colleagues Bhoj Kumar Acharya, Ranjini, Nikhil and help by Narayan Chettri, and
Denchok Lepcha in the field are highly appreciated.
The Sikkim False Wolf Snake, Dinodon gammiei was first described
by Blanford (1878) as Ophites gammiei from four specimens collected from
Cinchona plantations near Darjeeling in the British Sikkim. Dinodon is an
Indochinese genus having distribution in northeastern India (Smith
1943). Records on the distribution of
herpetofauna from adjacent biogeographic realms into India are scarce, and
there is need for accurate documentation, reporting and comparisons with museum
collections. Dinodon gammiei was
known only from Darjeeling Hills making it a highly restricted species until a
recent report from Arunachal Pradesh, India (Mistry et al. 2007). Sikkim has no authentic reports of the
species. However, it is listed in the reptile fauna of the State (Smith 1943;
Waltner 1973; Shaw et al. 1999; Jha & Thapa 2002; Sanyal et al. 2006). In the Colonial period, Darjeeling Hills were
considered as part of the greater Sikkim Himalaya (Gammie 1928). Therefore, the
reptile fauna of Sikkim Himalaya was merely derived from that of the Darjeeling
Hills. Mistry et al. (2007) even doubted
the reported occurrence of this species in Sikkim because there was no specimen
in the museum collections known from this state. This report confirms the occurrence of Dinodon
gammiei in the northeastern Himalayan state, Sikkim.
In a study on the biodiversity of Teesta valley, Sikkim from 2003 to
2006 four individuals of D. gammiei, one from Toong (27032’N-88038’E),
two individuals from Chungthang (27036’N -88038’E) and one from Khedum
(27037’N-88042’E) near Lachung, were
recorded. Altitudes above mean sea level
(asl) of the localities are 1300, 1500 and 2300m respectively. The individuals in Chungthang were found
resting under the roof of a shed in a cardamom plantation, at Khedum, it was
found under stone on a steep rocky slope (>450) and at Toong, it was a
road kill. Natural vegetation of the
area is tropical-broadleaved forests which have largely been converted into
cardamom plantations. Annual rainfall
and mean monthly temperature ranges are 1500-2000mm and 9-220C
respectively.
Snakes were photographed (Images 1-3) and released in the same area
after recording pholidosis and morphometry. Data on morphometry and pholidosis of this species (Mistry et al. 2007)
and the specimens from Darjeeling District deposited at Zoological Survey of
India, Kolkata (collected by Lord Carmichael, Reg. No. ZSI 17129, Darjeeling,
North Bengal) were compared with specimens recorded from Sikkim during this
study to identify the species. Two snakes (1 female and 1 male) had the
following characters: eight supralabials, 3rd, 4th and 5th touching the eye,
6th the largest; single loreal; 2+3 temporals; 1 pre and 2 postoculars; 2 pairs
of genials, anal plate entire; dorsal scales in 17-17-15 rows; coastal scales
relatively larger and smoother than the mid-dorsal scales; head black with
scattered yellow spots; supralabials black with yellow spots; 65 greenish
yellow transverse bars in total covering both dorsal and ventral scutes
including 42-45 from neck to vent; bars thicker in the anterior extending to
2-4 ventrals; male - ventral scutes 217, subcaudals 110, snout-vent 632mm and
tail length 196mm; female - ventral 218, subcaudals 112, snout-vent 865mm and
tail length 295mm.
Lycodon fasciatus and D.
gammiei are often confused with each other because of their similar
appearance (Shaw et al. 1999; Mistry et al. 2007). Dinodon gammiei has greater number of
ventral (217-218) and subcaudal (110-112) scutes compared to L. fasciatus (201-213,
74-94) respectively. Dinodon gammieihad loreals separated from the orbit by preocular (vs contact in Lycodon
fasciatus), presence of yellow bands covering ventral scutes and scattered
yellow markings on the head (vs lack of such colouration). However, the individuals we found in Sikkim
had larger posterior genials compared to that reported by Shaw and Shebbeare
(1929). Our report reaffirms the view
that D. gammiei should be considered as distinct from other Lycodon andDinodon species found within India (Mistry et al. 2007). This species has now reliably been reported
from Darjeeling, West Bengal (Blanford 1878; Smith 1943; Ahmed & Dasgupta
1992), Arunachal Pradesh (Mistry et al. 2007) and Sikkim (present study, Image
4). Dinodon gammiei was known
from an altitudinal range from 1067 to 1940m above mean sea level in the
Eastern Himalaya (Mistry et al. 2007). Our records of the species range from 1300 to
2300m in the same mountain range. This
upper limit of its altitudinal distribution is now placed at 2300m asl.
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