Buff striped keelback

Appearance

A small, slender snake, the buff striped keelback is generally olive-brown to gray in colour. The head and the body are of the same colour.

The body of the buff striped keelback is short, and it has a long slender tail which is almost a quarter of its length. Two yellow stripes along the length and to the sides of the spine are the distinctive feature of this snake. These stripes are diffuse at the head and are especially bright on the second half of its body.

The keelback has irregular blackish crossbars on the body. Near the head the crossbars are prominent, whereas on the second half of the snake they become diffuse.
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The sides of the head are yellow, and the head tapers to form a distinctive neck. The nape is red during the breeding season. The chin and throats are white or sometimes orange. There are black vertical markings in front of and behind the large eyes. The eyes have large round pupils with golden flecks on the iris. The forked tongue is black.

The underside is pale cream and has small black spots scattered along both the margins.

It has keeled scales on the dorsal surface of the body.
# The nasal shield does not touch the second supralabial .
# The rostral touches a total of 6 shields. These are two inter-nasals, two nasals and the first supralabial on each side.
# Presence of single temporal shield.
# Nineteen rows of costals which are strongly keeled except for the outer row which is perfectly smooth.
# Presence of stripes.
# Ventrals 125-161.
# Anal divided.
# Subcaudals 50-85.

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Naming

* Assamese – ''Bamuni saap''.
⤷  Oriya – ''Halahalia saapa''.
⤷  Bengali – ''Hele sanp''.
⤷  Marathi – ''Naneti''.
⤷  Telugu – ''Wannapam''.
⤷  Tamil – ''Nirkatan pambu''.
⤷  Tulu – ''Pageley''.
⤷  Sinhala – ''Aharakukka''.

Distribution

The buff striped keelback is found throughout South and Southeast Asia. Its range extends from Pakistan to Sri Lanka, Philippines, India , Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia , Taiwan and China .

In India, the snake is found up to an altitude of 2,000 feet .

Status

The buff striped keelback is common throughout its range, and is not of international conservation concern.

Habitat

The buff striped keelback inhabits river banks, marshy areas and wetlands but is also commonly found in fields, open countrysides and overgrown grassy patches during the monsoon season.The primary diet of adult ''A. stolatum'' is small amphibians such as frogs and toads, but they are also known to consume fish, small lizards, and rodents.

Food

The primary diet of adult ''A. stolatum'' is small amphibians such as frogs and toads, but they are also known to consume fish, small lizards, and rodents.

Evolution

Keelbacks are oviparous. Mating is thought to take place during the aestivation period. Gravid females have been found from April to August and eggs are laid in underground holes from May to September. The snake lays a clutch of 5 to 10 pure white eggs. Females remain with eggs till they hatch. The young snakes are 13 to 17 cm at birth and eat small frogs, tadpoles and insects.