IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 26(2):113–114 • AUG 2019

Occurrence of the Arrow-headed Trinket Snake (Coelognathus helena nigriangularis) in the Melghat Tiger Reserve: A Second Locality

Record for Maharashtra State, IndiaKhan Ashaharraza1 and Ankit Bibekar2

1Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation, North Orissa University, Baripada- 757003, Odisha, India (ashaharrazakhan@gmail.com)2Plot No. 134, Shastry Layout, Khamla, Nagpur-440025, Maharashta, India (ankitbibekar11@gmail.com)

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IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • VOL15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 189TABLE OF CONTENTS

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

F E A T U R E A R T I C L E S

Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190

The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198

R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E S

The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida

.............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212

C O N S E R V A T I O N A L E R T

World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225

H U S B A N D R Y

Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226

P R O F I L E

Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ................................................................................................ Michael L. Treglia 234

C O M M E N T A R Y

The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ........................................................................................................................ Eric Gangloff 238

B O O K R E V I E W

Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Robert Powell 243

CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252

Front Cover. Shannon Plummer.Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos accullabo.

Back Cover. Michael KernTotat et velleseque audant mo

estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus

aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque

moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia-tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as

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REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSC O N S E R V AT I O N A N D N AT U R A L H I S T O R Y

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The Arrow-headed Trinket Snake (Coelognathus helena nigriangularis), recently described by Mohapatra et

al. (2016), is known to occur in Andhra Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, southern Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and eastern Maharashtra (Lampe and Lindholm 1902; Edake 2011; Schulz 2013; Srivastava et al. 2013;

Kantimahanti et al. 2015; Chowdhury et al. 2018; Uetz et al. 2019). Herein we document a second locality in Maharashtra that also represents the western-most record for the species. During a recent field visit to the Gawilghur (= Gawilgad) Fort (21.3830434°N, 77.3367602°E) in the Melghat Tiger Reserve, we encountered a snake constricting a Lesser

Fig. 1. An Arrow-headed Trinket Snake (Coelognathus helena nigriangularis) constricting a Lesser Bandicoot (Bandicota bengalensis). Photograph by Ankit Bibekar.

IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324

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Bandicoot (Bandicota bengalensis; Fig. 1). Based on descrip-tions in Smith (1943) and Whitaker and Captain (2008), we quickly identified the snake as a ratsnake in the genus Coelognathus and subsequently as an Arrow-headed Trinket Snake, Coelognathus helena nigriangularis (Mohapatra et al. 2016). We photographed and videotaped the incident using a Nikon Coolpix P900™. The present locality is a historical fort (Fig. 2) in the municipality of Chikhaldara at an elevation of 1,035 m asl. Chikhaldara and the Pachmari Hill Station are the only two localities in a wet zone characterized by moist decidu-ous forests in the otherwise dry deciduous landscape of the Satpura Hills. This second locality record for the species in Maharashtra is the first record for the Amravati District and the Melghat Tiger Reserve (Nande and Deshmukh 2007) and

extends the range of the Arrow-headed Trinket Snake nearly 360 km to the west of the nearest known locality, Pachmari, Madhya Pradesh (Kumbhar et al. 2011; Fig. 3).

AcknowledgementsWe thank Srinivas Reddy, Field Director of the Melghat Tiger Reserve, for allowing us to conduct studies in the reserve; Pratyush Mohapatra, Central Zone Regional Center, Zoological Survey of India, Jabalpur, for verifying the iden-tity of the species and for comments on an earlier draft of this note; Klaus-Dieter Schulz, Würselen, Germany, for help with the literature; Ahsan Sheikh, Studio 99, Amravati, for providing the aerial view of the Gawilghur Fort; Cuckoo Mahapatra, North Orissa University, for guidance during manuscript preparation; Viraj Jaulkar and Virag Jaulkar for assistance in the field; and Sawan Deshmukh, Yadav Tarte, Dinesh Khate, Abhijeet Dani, Manoj Bind, Vaibhav Dalal, Kiran Bawaskar, Hemanata Behera, Samir Chalan, Sarada Achary, Pranati Naik, and Sunanda Swain for help with the survey and logistical support.

Literature CitedChowdhury, S., R. Sengupta, S. Mitra, and A. Chaudhuri. 2018. Extension of

the known range of the Trinket. Snake, Coelognathus helena nigriangula-ris (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae), in India. Reptiles & Amphibians 25: 129–131.

Edake, S. 2011. Serpents of Bandhavgarh. Trustees of the Corbett Foundation Newsletter, October–December 2010 & January–March 2011: 1–8.

Kantimahanti, M., K.D. Schulz, and V. Sharma. (2015). New locality records of Coelognathus helena cf. monticollaris (Schulz, 1992) from Andhra Pradesh, India. Sauria 37(4): 71–74.

Kumbhar, A.S., G.C. Patwardhan, A.K. Pradhan, and N.S. Dungriyal. 2011. New locality record of Coelognathus helena monticollaris (Schulz, 1992) from central India. Cobra 5(2): 31–35.

Lampe, E. and W.A. Lindholm. 1902. Catalog der Reptilien- und Amphibien-Sammlung (Schlangen; Frosch-, Schwanz- und Schleichenlurche) des Naturhistorischen Museums zu Wiesbaden. Jahrbücher des Nassauischen Vereins für Naturkunde 55: 1–66.

Mohapatra, P.P., K.-D. Schulz, N. Helfenberger, S. Hofmann, and S.K. Dutta. 2016. A contribution to the Indian Trinket Snake, Coelognathus helena (Daudin, 1803), with the description of a new subspecies. Russian Journal of Herpetology 23: 115–144.

Nande. R and S. Deshmukh. 2007. Snakes of Amravati district including Melghat Maharashtra, with important records of the Indian Egg-eater, Montane Trinket Snake and Indian Smooth Snake. Zoos’ Print Journal 22: 2920–2924.

Schulz, K.-D. 2013. An annotated and illustrated checklist of Old World ratsnakes, pp. 17–268. In: K.-D. Schulz (ed.), Old World Ratsnakes. A Collection of Papers. Bushmaster Publications, Berg, Switzerland.

Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including of Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. Taylor and Francis, London.

Srivastava, D.S., P.S. Easa, and J.B Jauher. 2013. Integrated Wildlife Management Plan for Singhbhum, Jharkhand. Unpublished report submitted to the Department of Forest and Environment. Government of Jharkhand, India.

Thakur, S. 2011. A note of snakes of Kanha National Park and surrounding areas. Reptile Rap 11: 2–4.

Uetz, P., P. Freed, and J. Hošek (eds.). 2019. The Reptile Database. <http://www.reptile-database.org>.

Whitaker, R. and A. Captain. 2008. Snakes of India: The Field Guide. Draco Books, Chennai, India.

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 26(2):113–114 • AUG 2019ASHAHARRAZA AND BIBEKAR

Fig. 2. An aerial view of typical habitat at the Gawilghur Fort, Chikhaldara, in the Melghat Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, India. Photograph courtesy of Ahsan Sheikh.

Fig. 3. The type locality (white square) of the Arrow-headed Trinket Snake (Coelognathus helena nigriangularis), plus previously documented distribu-tion records (black squares), and the new locality record from the Melghat Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, India (red triangle).