Homalopsis buccata
| Puff-faced Water Snake | |
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| Genus: | Homalopsis
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| Species: | H. buccata
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| Homalopsis buccata (Linnaeus, 1758)
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Puff-faced Water Snake or Masked Water Snake (Homalopsis buccata) is a species of water snake found in tropical areas of South and Southeast Asia.
Description
Inter nasals smaller than prefrontals; frontal often broken up into small shields, a little broader or sometimes narrower than the supraocular; parietals short; loreal present, sometimes divided; one or two pre- and two postoculars; one to three suboculars may be present; temporals small; ten to twelve upper labials, fifth or sixth entering the eye or narrowly separated from it; two or three pair of chin-shields, inner in contact with the three anterior lower labials. Scales in 37–47 rows; ventrals 158–176; anal divided; subcaudals 70–106. Dark brown above, with narrow, pale brown, black-edged transverse bands, in young specimens yellow; head pale with a triangular or V-shaped dark marking on the snout, a A-shaped spot on the occiput, and a dark band on each side passing through the eye and extending to before the eye. Lower surface white or yellowish, with dark brown spots along each side; tail with brown spots. Length of head and body 820 mm.; tail 230 mm. Eats fish and frogs.[1]
Distribution
- Bangladesh; Myanmar, Cambodia; Thailand; Vietnam;
- Indonesia (Sumatra, Riau Archipelago, Bangka, Belitung, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi);
- Laos; W Malaysia (Malaya); Singapore;
- NE India; Nepal; Pulau Bangka
Notes
- ^ Rooij, Nelly de 1915. Reptiles of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Leiden.
References
- Boulenger, George A. 1890 The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp.
- Stuart, B.L.; Smith, J.; Davey, K.; Din, P. & Platt, S.G. 2000 Homalopsine watersnakes. The harvest and trade from Tonle Sap, Cambodia. Traffic Bull. 18 (3): 115-124