India Round-up

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jonathan
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India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Here's a run-through of the stuff I saw in my last stretch of time in India. I pretty much visited four provinces - Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.


Delhi

Brook's House Gecko (Hemidactylus brookii)

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Local guys in the slum who had caught Oriental Garden Lizards (Calotes versicolor)

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Brahminy Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus)

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Marbled Toad (Bufo stomaticus)

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Indian Cricket Frog (Fejervarya limnocharis‎)

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Uttar Pradesh

Unidentified frogs in a slum gutter.

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habitat shot

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Huge Indian Bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus)

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Little Marbled Toads

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What kind of frog is this?

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Ornate Narrowmouth Frog (Microhyla ornata)

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Common Indian Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)

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Dussemier's Litter Skink? (Sphenomorphus dussumieri)

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What kind of skink is this?

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or this?

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Brook's House Geckos

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Yellow-green House Gecko (Hemidactylus flaviviridis)

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Lots of Common Wolf Snakes (Lycodon capucinus)

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The crowd watching me after I caught that one

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Checkered Keelback (Xenochrophis piscator)

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Huge dead one found in the canal

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A few of the 14 Brahminy Blind Snakes I saw in one day

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Indian flapshell turtle? (Lissemys punctata)

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Bihar


Spinytail House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus)

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Yellow-green House Gecko

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Oriental Garden Lizards

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Checkered Keelbacks in a polluted canal

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Uttarakhand


Hodgson's Ratsnake (Orthriophis hodgsoni)

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Ladakh Ground Skink (Scincella ladacensis)

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juvenile Large Mountain Lizard (Japalura major)?

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Many-banded Cat Snake (Boiga multifasciata)

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Kashmiri Rock Agamas (Laudakia tuberculata)

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Habitat shot

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Besides the herps, there were a few conspicuous mammals around:


Mongoose in the slum

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Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

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Hanuman Langur (Semnopithecus entellus)

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Bat my wife found on the ground

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Nilgai - my first wild antelope ever!

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Hopefully I will get a lot more time out in the woods when I go back in a couple weeks.
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JAMAUGHN
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Re: India Round-up

Post by JAMAUGHN »

Amazing stuff, Jonathan. Great finds.

JimM
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jonathan
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Re: India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Thanks Jim! Most of it is pretty common stuff. In the cities I seem to just keep finding the same three snake species (15 Brahminy blinds in Delhi and Lucknow, 9 checkered keelbacks in Lucknow, Patna, and Kolkata, and 4 wolf snakes in Lucknow and Kolkata) even though I've found them in 4 different provinces across completely different regions of the country! But my short trip to the mountains in Uttarakhand did add a little diversity to my finds.

Does anyone have any ID guesses on the frogs or skinks?
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Re: India Round-up

Post by mrichardson »

A very interesting post. It's amazing how much wildlife survives in the heavily polluted slum areas.
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Mike VanValen
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Mike VanValen »

Wow, Indian stuff is rarely posted around these parts. I've been meaning to get an Indian guide and start learning this area of the world. What are you using to ID your finds?
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jonathan
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Re: India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Some of the herps I recognize from my time in Thailand. I've also gotten to take a look at a couple Indian field guides, but don't own any (and the two I've seen were extremely incomplete). After that I have to come on here and ask questions. That's why the frogs and skinks are still unknown to me.
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Ruxs
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Ruxs »

Your wolf snake is Lycodon aulicus, unless you were in the Andaman Islands.

You seem good at finding braminus, I may have flipped 1000 rocks in my first two months in Thailand but I never found a single specimen.
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Lycodon aulicus was recently sunk and replaced with capucinus, so he's right in that regard.

But your second reference to "Indian cricket frogs" (have I ever mentioned how much I hate common names):
Uttar Pradesh

Indian Cricket Frogs in a slum gutter.
The frogs in the picture are not F. limnocharis. I don't know my Indian herps, so I can't comment with any certainty, but the frogs you have pictured look more like something in the Pelophylax complex, such as nigromaculata or plancyi - but I just don't know how far those range from China. But your animals look extremely similar. The one thing I am certain of is that they aren't in the genus Ferjevarya.
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Ruxs
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Ruxs »

Kevin Messenger wrote:Lycodon aulicus was recently sunk and replaced with capucinus, so he's right in that regard.
I wonder how long until it's back to Lycodon aulicus... :roll:
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jonathan
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Re: India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Kevin Messenger wrote:The frogs in the picture are not F. limnocharis. I don't know my Indian herps, so I can't comment with any certainty, but the frogs you have pictured look more like something in the Pelophylax complex, such as nigromaculata or plancyi - but I just don't know how far those range from China. But your animals look extremely similar. The one thing I am certain of is that they aren't in the genus Ferjevarya.
Thank you for that!

I didn't know anything closer than Ferjevarya to guess for them, but I looked at that picture with questions enough times that I should have been convinced already that they were not the same thing. As I said, though, it's hard for me to come up with frog ID's here.
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jonathan
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Re: India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Ruxs wrote:You seem good at finding braminus, I may have flipped 1000 rocks in my first two months in Thailand but I never found a single specimen.
It's mostly related to time of year. In most locales you can only find them during and after the rainy season. I found dozens in Thailand, mostly R. braminus but also three R. albiceps. But some months in the dry part of the year I didn't find any at all.

That being said, I grew up in Oregon and my herping specialty seems to be salamanders. So in the tropics, that skill transfers to fossorial snakes, and so that does seem to be what I'm mostly good at finding. :thumb:


p.s. - if you ever go back, I made this field guide for Bangkok's herps. It should be comprehensive for Bangkok itself, but hopefully can be somewhat useful outside Bangkok as well:

http://bangkokherps.wordpress.com
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Re: India Round-up

Post by zeevng »

Hi there! :)

Great post!

I grew up in India for 15 years, moved back to the states just last year for college.

You seem to have two species of wolf snakes pictured.
If Aulicus really has been replaced with Capucinus, then they might all be capucinus, technically, but one of them is an "original" capucinus, while the others are "original" aulicus. The one with the rounder, stubbier head is the capucinus, while the others are what I've always known as Aulicus. :)

I should post a round up of my best Indian snake shots.
Hmm. Maybe later tonight!
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jonathan
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Re: India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Thanks zeevng! I'd love to see a post of your snake shots, especially seeing which parts of India you've seen things in.
zeevng wrote:You seem to have two species of wolf snakes pictured.
If Aulicus really has been replaced with Capucinus, then they might all be capucinus, technically, but one of them is an "original" capucinus, while the others are "original" aulicus. The one with the rounder, stubbier head is the capucinus, while the others are what I've always known as Aulicus. :)
That's especially interesting because the snake with the stubbier head (I assume you mean the 3rd picture? The brighter-white one?) was found only a couple hundred meters away from the first snake (the first two pictures).

That third snake was actually very small, so I thought it was just a little juvi. Could that be making a difference in head shape?
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Re: India Round-up

Post by zeevng »

Just posted a few! Most of my pictures are from the south-western coastal state of Goa, though a few are from other parts of India.

No, the age wouldn't change the head shape. L. Aulicus has a LOT of variability in coloration, but that third picture isn't one of them. Also, I apologize, I misspoke when I said it was a capucinus, I forgot my Lycodons for a minute! :D
Rather, I believe it is a L. Striatus possibly a sinhaleyus subspecies. Possibly a juvenile lighter morph. :)

They are also smaller than aulicus, usually. :)
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zeevng
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Re: India Round-up

Post by zeevng »

Here is a photo of a stripe-less morph Aulicus

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Common wolf snake (Lycodon Aulicus) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr


That's a common morph. That, the ones you saw, and a dark chocolate brown morph with white stripes. :)
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Chaitanya
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Chaitanya »

Kevin Messenger wrote:Lycodon aulicus was recently sunk and replaced with capucinus, so he's right in that regard.
If you have paper about L. Aulicus(from India) being replaced with L. Capucinus please email me.

3rd picture under wolf snake probably is a Lycodon Striatus. If you have scale count please PM me. Also that small skink in your hands is some Lygosoma Sp. skink.
Also some nice snakes you found in Uttarakhand. It has been nearly 12 years since I have been to Himalayas.
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Re: India Round-up

Post by peterknuteberg »

This was a special treat. Love to see the habitat shots as well as the critters. Thank you for posting and keep em coming. Peter.
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Chaitanya wrote:
Kevin Messenger wrote:Lycodon aulicus was recently sunk and replaced with capucinus, so he's right in that regard.
If you have paper about L. Aulicus(from India) being replaced with L. Capucinus please email me.

3rd picture under wolf snake probably is a Lycodon Striatus. If you have scale count please PM me. Also that small skink in your hands is some Lygosoma Sp. skink.
Also some nice snakes you found in Uttarakhand. It has been nearly 12 years since I have been to Himalayas.
I tried to find a paper, but I cannot. I was told aulicus was sunk by someone back in 2011 I believe when I had a bunch of pics of Lycodon "aulicus" from Hong Kong. I haven't been able to find a paper though, so I'm not quite sure what to believe. I need to figure out who told me that, because whoever did was reputable enough to believe. If I find out more info, I will pass it on. Until then, I guess I would keep both as being distinct. Can't hurt, right?
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Chaitanya
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Chaitanya »

Kevin Messenger wrote:
Chaitanya wrote:
Kevin Messenger wrote:Lycodon aulicus was recently sunk and replaced with capucinus, so he's right in that regard.
If you have paper about L. Aulicus(from India) being replaced with L. Capucinus please email me.

3rd picture under wolf snake probably is a Lycodon Striatus. If you have scale count please PM me. Also that small skink in your hands is some Lygosoma Sp. skink.
Also some nice snakes you found in Uttarakhand. It has been nearly 12 years since I have been to Himalayas.
I tried to find a paper, but I cannot. I was told aulicus was sunk by someone back in 2011 I believe when I had a bunch of pics of Lycodon "aulicus" from Hong Kong. I haven't been able to find a paper though, so I'm not quite sure what to believe. I need to figure out who told me that, because whoever did was reputable enough to believe. If I find out more info, I will pass it on. Until then, I guess I would keep both as being distinct. Can't hurt, right?
I talked with some of my friends who are into research they told me only the S-E Asian population was merged into L. Capucinus. For india(except for Andaman and Nicobar Islands) it is still Aulicus. It doesn't hurt to keep both separate. Many Lycodon(/Boiga/Oligodon/Uropeltis) found in South India are confusing to ID correctly. With frogs its even a bigger mess.
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Re: India Round-up

Post by jonathan »

Thank you for all the information guys! I have all these lifer wolf snakes suddenly appearing a few months after I saw them! So would you guys say that those are Lycodon aulicus and Lycodon striatus?

So which one would this Kolkata wolf snake be?

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Unfortunately, I don't have scale counts on any of the skinks. Which scales should I be counting for ID's anyway? Labials or something else?

Anyone else have any hints on the skinks and frogs?
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Chaitanya
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Re: India Round-up

Post by Chaitanya »

jonathan wrote:Thank you for all the information guys! I have all these lifer wolf snakes suddenly appearing a few months after I saw them! So would you guys say that those are Lycodon aulicus and Lycodon striatus?

So which one would this Kolkata wolf snake be?

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Unfortunately, I don't have scale counts on any of the skinks. Which scales should I be counting for ID's anyway? Labials or something else?

Anyone else have any hints on the skinks and frogs?
Sadly when it comes to lizards there are no good field guides, although I have sent the links of photos to lizard experts from BNHS. I wanted the scale counts of the wolf snakes not lizards. Although the skink in your hands with tiny legs is a lygosoma sp. skink.
From the previous photos you posted 3rd one is Lycodon Striatus. There are some differences in scale count in northern and southern populations. Also Barred wolf snake is much smaller than Aulicus. Here is a photo of striatus we get in Maharashtra:
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Barred Wolf Snake by Chaitanya Shukla, on Flickr

I showed the pics of wolf snake from Kolkata to a friend from West Bengal. He said its Common Wolf Snake(L. Aulicus). like the once from Delhi.
On facebook, there is a group: AmphibianIndia, you can post the photos of frogs over there for ID, just make sure to put location and date while posting.
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