Uropeltis

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Subordo: Serpentes
Superfamilia: Booidea

Familia: Uropeltidae
Genus: Uropeltis
Species (26): U. arcticeps – U. beddomii – U. bhupathyi – U. bicatenata – U. broughami – U. ceylanica – U. dindigalensis – U. ellioti – U. grandis – U. jerdoni – U. liura – U. macrolepis – U. macrorhyncha – U. maculata – U. madurensis – U. myhendrae – U. nitida – U. ocellata – U. petersi – U. phipsonii – U. pulneyensis – U. rajendrani – U. rubrolineata – U. rubromaculata – U. shorttii – U. woodmasoni
Name

Uropeltis Cuvier, 1829

Type species: Uropeltis ceylanicus Cuvier, 1829, by monotypy.

References
Additional references

Jins, V.J., Sampaio, F.L. & Gower, D.J. 2018. A new species of Uropeltis Cuvier, 1829 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the Anaikatty Hills of the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa 4415(3): 401–422. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4415.3.1. Reference page.
Ganesh, S.R. & Srikanthan, A.N. 2020. A new species of shieldtail snake (Reptilia: Squamata: Uropeltidae) from Kolli Hill complex, southern Eastern Ghats, peninsular India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(4): 15436–15442. DOI: 10.11609/jott.5680.12.4.15436-15442 Open access Reference page.
Ganesh, S.R., Punith, K.G., Adhikari, O.D. & Achyuthan, N.S. 2021. A new species of shieldtail snake (Squamata: Uropeltidae: Uropeltis) from the Bengaluru uplands, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(6): 18508–18517. DOI: 10.11609/jott.6736.13.6.18508-18517 Open access Reference page.

Links

Uetz, P. & Hallermann, J. 2021. Uropeltis . The Reptile Database. Accessed on 4 July 2021.

Uropeltis is a genus of nonvenomous shield tail snakes endemic to peninsular India. As of 2017, 23 species are recognized.[2]

Geographic range

Most Uropeltis species are found in hills of peninsular India, mainly in southwestern parts of the country, including the Western Ghats and to some extent, also in the Eastern Ghats and in hills of Central India.[1]
Description

Eye in the ocular shield. No supraoculars. No temporals. No mental groove. Tail conical or obliquely truncated, terminating in a small scute, the end of which is square, or bicuspid with the points side by side.[3]
Species

Species[2][4]	Taxon author[2][4]	Common name	Geographic range[1][4]
U. arcticeps	(Günther, 1875)	Tinevelly shieldtail	Tirunelveli Hills
U. beddomii	(Günther, 1862)	Beddome's shieldtail	Anaimalai Hills
U. bhupathyi	Jins, Sampaio, & Gower, 2018	Bhupathy's shieldtail	Tamil Nadu
U. bicatenata	(Günther, 1875)	two-chained shieldtail	Pune Hills
U. broughami	(Beddome, 1878)	Brougham's shieldtail	Palni Hills
U. ceylanicaT	Cuvier, 1829	Cuvier's shieldtail	Western Ghats south of Goa
U. dindigalensis	(Beddome, 1877)	Dindigul shieldtail	Sirumalai Hills
U. ellioti	(Gray, 1858)	Elliot's shieldtail	Hills of peninsular India
U. grandis	(Beddome, 1867)	Smith's earth snake	Anaimalai Hills
U. liura	(Günther, 1875)	Günther's shieldtail	Southern Western Ghats
U. macrolepis	(Peters, 1862)	Bombay shieldtail	Northern Western Ghats
U. macrorhyncha	(Beddome, 1877)	Ponachi shieldtail	Anaimalai Hills
U. maculata	(Beddome, 1878)	spotted shieldtail	Anaimalai Hills
U. madurensis	(Beddome, 1878)	Madura earth snake	Meghamalai
U. myhendrae	(Beddome, 1886)	barred shieldtail	Agasthyamalai Hills
U. nitida	(Beddome, 1878)	Cochin shieldtail	Anaimalai Hills and Nelliyampathi
U. ocellata	(Beddome, 1863)	Nilgiri shieldtail	Western Ghats south of Nilgiris
U. petersi	(Beddome, 1878)	Peters' shieldtail	Anaimalai Hills
U. phipsonii	(Mason, 1888)	Phipson's shieldtail	Northern Western Ghats
U. pulneyensis	(Beddome, 1863)	Palni shieldtail	Southern Western Ghats
U. rajendrani	Ganesh & Achyuthan, 2020	Rajendran's shieldtail	Southern Eastern Ghats
U. rubrolineata	(Günther, 1875)	red-lined shieldtail	Southern Western Ghats
U. rubromaculata	(Beddome, 1867)	red-spotted shieldtail	Anaimalai Hills
U. shorttii	(Beddome, 1863)	Shevaroy Hills earth snake	Yercaud
U. woodmasoni	(W. Theobald, 1876)	Palni shieldtail, black-bellied shieldtail	Palni Hills

* Not including the nominate subspecies.
T Type species.[1]

Nota bene: A taxon author in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Uropeltis.
References

McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré TA (1999). Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
"Uropeltis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
Boulenger GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families ... Uropeltidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. (Genus Silybura, p. 144).

"Uropeltis ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

Boulenger GA (1890). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 541 pp. (Genus Silybura, p. 257, Figure 81).
Cuvier [G] (1829). Le Régne Animal Distribué, d'après son Organisation, pour servir de base à l'Histoire naturelle des Animaux et d'introduction à l'Anatomie Comparé. Nouvelle Edition, Revue et Augmentée [second edition]. Tome II [Volume 2]. Les Reptiles. Paris: Déterville. xv + 406 pp. (Uropeltis, new genus, pp. 76–77). (in French).
Das I (2002). A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of India. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 144 pp. ISBN 0-88359-056-5. (Genus Uropeltis, pp. 59–60).
Smith MA (1943). The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (Genus Uropeltis, p. 73).
Wall F (1921). Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon. Colombo, Ceylon [Sri Lanka]: Colombo Museum. (H.R. Cottle, Government Printer). xxii + 581 pp. (Genus Uropeltis, pp. 23–25, Figures 7-9).
Ganesh SR (2015). Shieldtail snakes (Reptilia: Uropeltidae)– the Darwin's finches of south Indian snake fauna? Manual on Identification and Preparation of Keys of Snakes with Special Reference to their Venomous Nature in India., Govt. Arts College, Ooty, 13-24.
Pyron RA, Ganesh SR, Sayyed A, Sharma V, Wallach V, Somaweera R (2016). "A catalogue and systematic overview of the shield-tailed snakes (Serpentes: Uropeltidae)". Zoosystema 38 (4): 453–506.
Rajendran, M.V., (1985). "Studies on Uropeltid Snakes", Publication Division, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 132pp.