Japanese keelback
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009) |
| Japanese keelback | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Colubridae |
| Genus: | Hebius |
| Species: | H. vibakari
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| Binomial name | |
| Hebius vibakari | |
| Synonyms | |
The Japanese keelback (Hebius vibakari) is a species of colubrid snake, which is endemic to Asia.
Geographic range
It is found in northeastern China, Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku), Korea, and Russia (Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai).[3]
Description
It is a small snake, growing to a maximum total length of 44 cm (17+1⁄4 in), with a tail 10 cm (3+7⁄8 in) long.
Dorsally it is olive or reddish brown, with small blackish spots. Some specimens may have a dark olive or blackish vertebral stripe. The upper labials are yellow, with black sutures. On each side of the nape of the neck there is a yellow dark-edged diagonal streak, these two streaks converging posteriorly. Ventrally it is yellow, with a series of brown dots or short lines at the outer ends of the ventral scales.
Dorsal scales strongly keeled (except outer row), arranged in 19 rows at midbody. Ventrals 127-151; anal plate divided; subcaudals divided 59-79.[4]
References
- ^ ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System). www.itis.gov.
- ^ The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
- ^ The Reptile Database.
- ^ Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Colubridæ Aglyphæ, Part. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I.-XXVIII. (Tropidonotus vibakari, pp. 221-222.)
Further reading
- Boie, H. 1826. Merkmale eineger japanischer Lurche. Isis von Oken 19: 203-216. (Tropidonotus vibakari, p. 207.)
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