The Indian wolf snake is a species of nonvenomous snake found in South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. Early naturalists have suggested its resemblance to the venomous common krait

Common Krait

The common krait is a species of genus Bungarus found in the jungles of the Indian subcontinent. It is a member of the "big four", species inflicting the most snakebites in India....

 as an instance of Batesian mimicry

Batesian mimicry

Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry typified by a situation where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a common predator...

.

Description

The colouration of this snake is variable.

This snake is often confused with the common krait

Common Krait

The common krait is a species of genus Bungarus found in the jungles of the Indian subcontinent. It is a member of the "big four", species inflicting the most snakebites in India....

. The presence of a loreal shield can be used to distinguish it from kraits.

The following is a description of various forms from Albert Günther's Reptiles of British India (1864).
Snout broad, much depressed, long, spatulate, with the upper lip swollen, and without canthus rostralis. Rostral shield very low, broad, slightly bent backwards on the upper surface of the snout; anterior frontals [= internasals] very small; posterior frontals [= prefrontals] longer than broad, much more so in adult specimens than in young ones; there is a lateral notch between the anterior and posterior frontals, in which the inner anterior angle of the loreal is received; the posterior frontals have an obtuse lateral angle corresponding to the suture between loreal and praeocular; occipitals elongate. Nostril small, directed upwards, between two nasals, the anterior of which is situated on the foremost part of the snout. Loreal single, large, nearly twice as long as broad. Praeocular single, in contact with the vertical [= frontal] and with the third labial; specimens in which it does not reach the vertical are very scarce. Two postoculars; supraciliary rather small. Nine upper labials, the third, fourth, and fifth of which enter the orbit. Temporals numerous, scale-like. Scales smooth, with a minute apical groove, in seventeen rows. Abdomen and tail with an angular ridge on each side. Ventrals 183-209; anal bifid, in a few specimens entire; subcaudals 57-77. Each maxillary is armed with two fangs in front, placed in a transverse line, the outer being much larger than the inner; the lateral longitudinal series of teeth commences at some distance from the fangs; they are small, from four to twelve in number, the last being considerably larger than the others; pterygoido-palatine teeth small, of equal size;
mandible with two or three fangs on each side and with a series of small teeth.

Coloration variable.

• I. Continental varieties. The posterior frontals are moderately elongate-in young specimens nearly as broad as long. Each upper labial with a brown spot. [To this category belong also specimens from the Philippine Islands.]
  • Var. a. Uniform brown above, without collar: Malayan peninsula, Bengal, Madras.
  • Var. b. Uniform brown above, with a while collar: Madras.
  • Var. c. Brown or greyish brown, With indistinct traces of a white network, and with a white collar, more distinct in young specimens than in old ones: Coast of Malabar, Pinang, Malayan peninsula, Gamboja, Philippine Islands, Timor.
  • Var. d. Ferruginous or chestnut-brown, with white, brown-edged cross bars on the back, which are sometimes bifid on the sides, the branches of one band joining a branch of the preceding and following bands. The first band forms a collar; those on the hind part of the body gradually become indistinct. This variety is very common, and similar to, but specifically distinct from, the snake figured by Russell (i. pl. 16): we have received it from Pinang, Bengal, Nepal, Kangra (Himalayas), the Dekkan, and the Anamallay Mountains.
• II. Ceylonese varieties. The posterior frontals are much elongate, much longer than broad in every age. Upper labials while or shaded with brown.
  • Var. e. Uniform brownish grey above.
  • Var. f. Brown, with three or four broad, distant, white cross bands on the anterior half of the body; the anterior forms a collar, the others being broadest on the sides.
  • Var. g. Brown or greyish, with pure-while or reticulated while cross bands extending downwards to the belly, where they are broadest.

The following description is from Boulenger's Fauna of British India, Reptilia and Batrachia volume (1890):

Snout much depressed, with swollen lips, spatulate in the adult; eye rather small. Rostral much broader than long, just visible from above: internasals much shorter than the prefrontals; frontal usually shorter than its distance from the end of the snout or than the parietals ; loreal elongate, not entering the eye; one praeocular, usually in contact with the frontal; two postoculars; temporals small, scale-like, 2+3 or 3+3; 9 upper labials, third, fourth, and fifth entering the eye; 4 or 5 lower labials in contact with the anterior chin-shields, which are longer than the posterior. Scales smooth, in 17 rows. Ventrals 183-209, obtusely angulate laterally; anal divided; subcaudals 57-77, in two rows. Coloration variable; uniform brown above, or with white transverse bands, or with white reticulation; upper lip uniform white, or with brown spots; lower parts uniform white.

Total length 51 cm (20 inches); tail 11 cm (4¼ inches).

Habitat: India and Ceylon, Himalayas, Burma, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Java, Philippines, Timor. A common snake in India.

Scalation

The rostral touches six shields. The frontals touch the parietals, supraoculars, prefrontals and preoculars. The supraoculars are small. The parietals are One and a half times the size of the frontal. The preoculars are entire while the postoculars and temporals are divided into two shields.There are nine pairs of supralabials with the 3rd,4th and 5th touching the eye. The ventrals are 170 to 224 in number. The anal shield is divided. The subcaudals are 56 to 80 and are divided.

Distribution

Lycodon aulicus is found in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 (north to Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 and Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

; Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

), Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

 (= Burma), Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 (incl. Phuket

Phuket Province

Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...

), W Malaysia, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 (southward as far as Timor

Timor

Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...

), Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

, The Maldives

Maldives

The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...

 (accidental introduction), Mascarenes, Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 (introduced), S China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 (from Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

 and Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

 westward to Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

, incl. Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

). It is one of the most common snakes of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Ceylon, but becomes scarcer on the coasts of the southeastern parts of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It occurs on only a few of the islands in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

Behaviour

The Indian wolf snake is nocturnal and is inactive in the day. Günther (1864) writes that it is of fierce habits and defends itself vigorously, however it is nonvenomous. It is known to defend itself when barred of escape, and can cause severe lacerations with its fine sharp "fangs".

Diet

Lycodon aulicus feeds on lizards and frogs. According to Günther (1864) it is one of the most formidable enemies of the skinks, which form almost its sole food, the "fangs" in the front of its jaws being admirably adapted for piercing and making good its hold on the hard smooth scales with which those lizards are coated.

Reproduction

Females may be larger than males. They breed prior to the monsoons and lay 4-11 eggs.

External links

• http://www.goateetoni.com/articles/wolf-snake
• http://members.fortunecity.com/ukp001/naja/colubridae/lycodon_aulicus.htm