Jan's Cliff racer | Platyceps rhodorachis, Jan (1865)

Platyceps rhodorachis, Jan's Cliff racer, Braid Snake

Platyceps

Edward Blyth erected the genus Platyceps in 1860. The genus name “Platyceps” was inadvertently used for a fossil species in 1877 now recognized as “Platycepsion wilkinsoni”.

Currently 26 species come under this genus which is:

·        Platyceps afarensis (Schätti & Ineich, 2004); Platyceps bholanathi (Sharma, 1976); Platyceps noeli (Schätti, Tillack & Kucharzewski, 2014); Platyceps brevis (Boulenger, 1895); Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1865); Platyceps rogersi (Anderson, 1893); Platyceps collaris (F. Müller, 1878) ; Platyceps saharicus (Schätti & McCarthy, 2004); Platyceps scortecci (Lanza, 1963); Platyceps elegantissimus (Günther, 1878); Platyceps florulentus  (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827); Platyceps sinai (Schmidt & Marx, 1956); Platyceps sindhensis (Schätti, Tillack & Kucharzewski, 2014);  Platyceps gracilis (Günther, 1862); Platyceps insulanus (Mertens, 1965); Platyceps karelini (Brandt, 1838); Platyceps ladacensis (Anderson, 1871); Platyceps somalicus (Boulenger, 1896); Platyceps taylori (Parker, 1949); Platyceps tessellata (F. Werner, 1910); Platyceps thomasi (Parker, 1931); Platyceps variabilis (Boulenger, 1905); Platyceps largeni (Schätti, 2001) & Platyceps messanai (Schätti & Lanza, 1989)

(Source: reptile-database)

Jan's Cliff racer | Platyceps rhodorachis Jan, 1865

Platyceps rhodorachis is commonly known as Jan's Cliff racer or Braid snake. It is a species of snake which fall under family colubridae & found in Central Asia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Oman, Afghanistan, S Uzbekistan, Yemen, S Kazakhstan, W Kyrgyzstan, NW Tajikistan, S Turkmenistan, Iran (Kavir Desert), W Pakistan, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Chad & Eritrea.

Platyceps rhodorachis (Source: reptile-database)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Platyceps
Species:	rhodorachis
Binomial name
Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1865)

It is the most controvert species between researchers regarding its taxonomy, species namely Platyceps r. subniger distributed from Eritrea to Somalia, Platyceps r. ladacensis distributed in Iran, east to Afghanistan, north to S Turkmenistan, S Uzbekistan, W Tajikistan., Pakistan, Platyceps r. kashmirensis reported from Pakistan are considered the sub species of Platyceps rhodorachis.

Platyceps rhodorachis (Source: indiansnakes.org)

Scalation in P.rhodorachis is as: Supralabial 9, usually 5^th-6^th touches the (rarely 4^th-6^th) eye, there are 9-11 infralabials acknowledged, midbody scale are arranged as 19: 19:13/15; ventral’s are 195-277 angulated laterally, where subcaudals  are between 108-144. The total length (snout to vent) of the specimens recorded are 859-1043 mm, while that of tail is 244-354 mm. Distinctive pre and post oculo-labial stripes are present in the species. The colour of the species shows variation such as: Head was recorded as gray to brownish colour having light yellowish preocular and postocular bar; while that of body it is light to average gray & sometimes may be brownish or greenish in colour, where anterior half of body have small traverse bars, posterior unicolour.
Reproduction: oviparous

Platyceps rhodorachis (Source: reptile-database)

Literature Cited:

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Platyceps rhodorachis at Reptile-database.reptarium.cz retrieved on 29 August 2019

Glossy-bellied-racer at Indiansnakes.org retrieved on 29 August 2019

Platyceps at Wikipedia.org retrieved on 29 August 2019

Platyceps rhodorachis at Wikipedia retrieved on 29 August 2019

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Mulder, J. 2002. The Thread Snake, Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus (Reptilia: Leptotyphlopidae) as a presumed prey item for the racer Coluber rhodorachis (Reptilia: Colubridae). Zoology in the Middle East, 26: 89 - get paper here

Murthy, T.S.N. 1990. Illustrated Guide to the Snakes of the Western Ghats, India. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper No. 114

Narayanan, A. and Satyanarayan, K. 2012. Glossy-bellied racer snake Platyceps ventromaculatus (Gray, 1834) (Squamata: Serpentes: Colubridae): new locality record in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), India. Check List, 8 (6): 1356–1358

Perry, G. 1985. A new subspecies of Coluber rhodorachis (Ophidia: Colubridae) from Israel. Israel Journal of Zoology, 33:123 [meeting abstract]

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Perry, G. 2012. On the Appropriate Names for Snakes Usually Identified as Coluber rhodorachis (Jan, 1865) or Why Ecologists Should Approach the Forest of Taxonomy with Great Care. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians, 19 (2): 90–100 - get paper here

Ramesh, C., Balraj, S., Arun, P. R., Ramapurath, K.S., Murugesan, M., Abhijit, D. and Subramanian, B. 2015. Further confirmation for Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1865), from India, with a note on feeding on Cyrtodactylus fasiolatus (Blyth, 1861). Herpetozoa, 28 (1/2): 109-112 - get paper here

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