Indian Black Earth Snake Melanophidium wynaudense is a species of snake found in the Western Ghats

Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...

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Description

Beddome (1864: 180): "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."

Type locality: Cherambady in Wayanad.