Malabar Vine Snake

About the Malabar Vine Snake

The Malabar vine snake (Ahaetulla malabarica), is a species of tree snake endemic to the southern portion of the central Western Ghats of India. It was formerly considered conspecific with A. nasuta, which is now considered to only be endemic to Sri Lanka. A 2020 study found A. nasuta to be a species complex of A. nasuta sensu stricto as well as A. borealis, A. farnsworthi, A. isabellina, and A. malabarica.

The body is very slender and adults can reach a total length (snout-nail) of 1 m. Dorsum is uniform bright green, sometimes sunset yellow to light bronzy brown. Rostral scale, infralabials and venter are bright green to lighter green, or turmeric yellow to light brown, in mid body; some infralabials have small white patches. Yellow or white ventral stripe along notched ventral keels from a few scale rows after the nape; slight discolouration in the preocular; inter-scalar white with black and white anteriorly-converging bars, white becoming uniform pinkish posteriorly; golden yellow to orange eyes with black speckles; concentration of black speckles both in the anterior and posterior ends of a horizontal pupil, with a light blue or yellow colouration... Wikipedia →