A new species of snake from Tamil Nadu and an old naming confusion from London

Detailed investigation of unpublished manuscripts, paintings and even CT scanning old specimens showed that the Banded racer and Anamalai wolf snake were misidentified

An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of racer snake from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and also solved a naming confusion that existed for nearly two centuries. The new species named Platyceps josephi (after late herpetologist Naveen Joseph), has distinct white bands on its body and irregular white spots on its head. Less than a metre in length, it is a non-venomous terrestrial snake, so far only known from Tamil Nadu. Its diet chiefly consists of geckos, lizards and small rodents. “The species faces a number of threats across its distributional range, including habitat destruction, because the grasslands in southern Tamil Nadu are being actively converted into plantations, farmlands and urbanisation...The species’ ability to adapt and its reproductive success is not known,” published in Vertebrate Zoology.