Morphological variations in Sinomicrurus macclellandi macclellandi (Serpentes: Elapidae), the only coral snake species in northeast India

H. T. Lalremsanga , Zothansiama

Science Vision 15 (4), 212-221 | Published on 31 December 2015 |

Abstract

Specimens of Sinomicrurus macclellandi macclellandi, a deadly venomous Elapid snake collected from various parts of Mizoram were studied on their morphology and meristic features. The observation revealed that there are three different varieties in this subspecies on the basis of morphology and meristic parameters. Variations in colouration patterns, scalations and body proportion are described in this paper. Our specimens are compared with different varieties mentioned in the existing literatures. It was found that difference in body size and length are observed among this complex subspecies. It is suggested that to reveal this unknown hitherto, a detailed comparative study on molecular basis of these varieties allocated to the same subspecies in this region should be conducted with larger samples.

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