A lighter-coloured juvenile Aquatic Rhabdops.

MUMBAI: A new species of aquatic snakes endemic to the northern Western Ghats has been recorded. It is found at an elevation of 750-1,000m and is associated with upland laterite plateaus — a distinct feature of the northern Ghats -and the forest streams that flow from them.

Belonging to the genus Rhabdops, it joins its two previously known cousins -Olive Forest Snake (Rhabdops olivaceous) and Bi-Coloured Forest Snake (Rhabdops bicolor), says a recent publication in the scientific journal Zootaxa.

Rhabdops aquaticus (or Aquatic Rhabdops) is distinct from the other two species genetically as well as morphologically, said first author Dr Varad Giri of National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru. “It can be distinguished by colouration and the number of belly scales.“

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The adults are typically seen in or along fresh water streams in the forest and juveniles are seen in water-logged habitats on the rocky plateaus. “Their preference for these niche habitats underlines the need for conservations of these lateritic plateaus and associated streams,“ said Giri.

Besides NCBS, the Natural History Museum, London; Centre for Ecological Science, IISc, Bengaluru; Indian Herpetological Society, Pune; the Wildlife Institute of India and others collaborated in the effort.

Aquatic Rhabdops was pre viously misidentified as the Olive Forest snake , which was described in 1863, owing to similarities in some features and distribution. This time, the team conducted a detailed study , using both DNA and morphology , of the historical and recently collected specimens from various localities in the Western Ghats.

“On close observation, we realized the populations from the northern Western Ghats (Amboli, Koyna and Baraki) looked quite distinct from the southern Western Ghats populations,“ said Giri. Now it is considered that the Olive Forest Snake is restricted to Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and the populations from Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka are the new species.

