Tri-striped shieldtail snake, Lined thorntail snake
Platyplectrurus trilineatus, commonly known as the Tri-striped shieldtail snake or the lined thorntail snake, is a species of uropeltid snake endemic to the Western Ghats of Southern India. Like most other shieldtail snakes, it is presumed to be a nocturnal, fossorial snake inhabiting evergreen forests. A very rare snake, about which nothing is known in terms of live colouration and natural history.
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal",...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
A fossorial animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, ...
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starts withAdults are reddish brown or brick-red dorsally, with three black stripes, which may be either continuous or interrupted.
The young are dark brown or black dorsally, with two or more narrow yellowish stripes, yellowish ventrally, with a brown dot on each ventral scale. Juveniles also have yellowish transverse markings behind the shielded part of the head, which may resemble an incomplete collar.
Adults may attain a total length of 40 cm (15+3⁄4 in).
Dorsal scales arranged in 15 rows at midbody (in 17 rows behind the head). Ventrals 163-175; subcaudals 8-16.
Snout broadly rounded. Rostral small, but visible from above. Frontal longer than broad. Supraocular much larger than the eye, longer than the prefrontal. One elongated temporal, which is 2/3 or 3/5 the length of the parietal. Ventrals nearly two times as broad as the contiguous scales. Dorsal scales of the tail smooth or a few of the terminal ones weakly bicarinate or tricarinate. Terminal scute with a transverse ridge which is less distinct in females.
It is found in southern India in the southern Western Ghats in the Anamalai Hills of Kerala and Tamil Nadu states.
Type locality of Plectrurus trilineatus : "Anamally forests; elevation 4,000 feet".
Type locality of Platyplectrurus bilineatus : "Madura Hills".
