Melanophidium wynaudense
# Melanophidium wynaudense

Melanophidium wynaudense, commonly known as the Indian black earth snake, is a species of snake in the family Uropeltidae. The species is endemic to India.

## Geographic range

M. wynaudense is found in the Western Ghats of southern India.

Type locality: "Cherambady in the Wynaud [= Wayanad]".

## Description

Beddome (1864: 180) described M. wynaudense as follows:

"Scales round the body 15, round the neck 16 or 17; rostral scarcely produced back between the nasals; no supraorbital; muzzle more obtuse than in P. perrotteti; eye small; subcaudals 11 pairs; anal large, bifid; tail compressed; scales smooth, terminal spinose, tail ending in a single horny point.

Colour bluish black, with broad white blotches on the belly, which become larger and more numerous towards the tail; tail uniform bluish black."

## Footnotes

* ↑ 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. ("Melanophidium wynadense [sic]", p. 163).
* ↑ "Melanophidium wynaudense ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
