Uropeltis melanogaster
Encyclopedia
Gray's Earth Snake (Gray, 1858) is a small snake
in family
Uropeltidae (shieldtail snakes), native to Sri Lanka
. Its length is from 10 to 27 cm. This species and its relatives are generally called "earth snakes." Many have been classified previously with a different genus name, in this case Silybura melanogaster.
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
in family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Uropeltidae (shieldtail snakes), native to 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...
. Its length is from 10 to 27 cm. This species and its relatives are generally called "earth snakes." Many have been classified previously with a different genus name, in this case Silybura melanogaster.
External links
- Image of U. melanogaster at University of Peradeniya. Accessed 13 December 2007.
