New Distribution Record for Calotes Nemoricola Jerdon, 1853 from the Kudremukh Hills, Karnataka, India

2008·0.51 MB·

by  Rohit Naniwadekar

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
9. NEW DISTRIBUTION RECORD FOR CALOTESNEMORICOLA JERDON, 1853
FROM THE KUDREMUKH HILLS, KARNATAKA, INDIA1
RohitNaniwadekar23 andV. Deepak2
'AcceptedFebruary24,2007
2NatureConservationFoundation,3076/5,IVCross,GokulamPark, Mysore570002, Karnataka,India.
3Email: [email protected]
Kudremukh National Park (KNP) is one of the less Table 1: Measurements(in mm)ofC. nemoricola
explored mountain ranges of central Western Ghats
Character Measurement
(Vasudevan et al. 2006). We conducted herpetological (mm)
surveys forthe KarnatakaForest Departmentfrom October Snouttoventlength 140.4
2005 toFebruary 2006 intheKNP. On November27, 2005, Taillength 324
at 1600hrswecameacrossasinglespecimenofCalotessp. Taildiameteratthebaseofthetail 11.9
moving on the ground in an Areca nut plantation in the Headlength 38.3
Headwidth 22.7
PelavillageoftheBelthangadyrangeofKNP.Thisplantation Lengthofthe IVtoefromthejunction of IVandVtoe 29.9
isabout 100mfromanevergreenforestat400mabovemsl. Lengthofthelongestnuchalscale 10.6
The specimen was fixed in 70% Ethanol and deposited in Diameterofthetympanum 3.9
the Collections of the Bombay Natural History Society, Diameteroftheeye 5.2
Mumbai (BNHS Regn No. 1778). Supralabials(right/left) 11/11
Infralabials(right/left) 11/11
Thespecimen wasidentified as C. nemoricolaJerdon Aroundthebodyscalerows 38
(Smith 1935). The morphological and meristic data Mid-dorsalcrestscales 47
is given in Table 1. The coloration of this specimen was Right4thtoesubdigital lamellae 23
similar to Smith’s description except for the presence of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
blue colour on the head and maroon colour on the nape.
The sex ofthe specimen was not determined. WethanktheKarnatakaForestDepartmentandtheir
C. nemoricola is known from Munnar, Nelliampathy, staff for funding, permission and support. We thank
Ponmudi hills and Wayanad in Kerala; Annamalai, Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan and Shri. M.S. Chaitra fortheir
Ashambhu, Mudumalai and Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu guidance, support and encouragement. We are grateful to
(Gunther 1864;Smith 1935;WhitakerandDas 1990;Tikader Mr. DilipVenugopal and Mr. N.M. Ishwarforprovidingold
and Sharma 1992; Karthikeyan et al. 1993, Bhupathy and site records of C. nemoricola. We thank Mr. Varad Giri for
Kannan 1997; Thomas et al. 1997; Ishwar 2001; Ishwar et theinformationprovided. WethankMr. ShashankDalviand
al. 2001). Thus, this new locality information extends the Ms. Swapna N. for their support during the survey and
distribution of the species by c. 300 km north. It suggests Mr. S.P. Vijayakumar for his critical comments on the
that the species ranges widely throughout the central and manuscript.Weexpressoursincerethankstotheanonymous
southernWestern Ghats. refereeforthe valuable comments.
NCES
Bhupathy, S. & P. Kannan (1997): Status ofAgamid lizards in the Hamadryad18: 45-46.
Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. Salim Ali Centre for Smith,M.A. (1935):TheFaunaofBritishIndia,includingCeylonand
Ornithology and Natural History,TechnicalReport, No. 5. Burma:ReptiliaandAmphibia.Vol.2:Sauria.Taylor&Francis,
Gunther, A. (1864): The Reptiles of British India. R. Hardwicke. London.
London, pp. 444+26plates. Thomas,J.,J.Sabu&PS.Easa(1997):Statusanddistributionofreptiles
Ishwar,N.M.(2001):Reptilianspeciesdistributioninresponsetohabitat inWyanad, Kerala. Cobra28: 25-30.
fragmentation and microhabitats in the rainforests ofsouthern Tikader,B.K.&R.C.Sharma(1992):TheHandbookofIndianReptiles.
Western Ghats, India. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, FRI Zoological Survey ofIndiaPublication, pp. 250+42plates.
DeemedUniversity, Dehradun. Vasudevan,K„M.Singh,V.R.Singh,M.S.Chaitra,R.S.Naniwadekar,
Ishwar, N.M., A. Kumar & R. Chellam(2001): Distributionofforest V. Deepak& N. Swapna (2006): Surveyofbiological diversity
floor reptiles in the rainforest of Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger in Kudremukh forestcomplex, Karnataka. Final Survey report
Reserve, SouthIndia. CurrentScience80(3): 413-418. ofKudremukhWLDivision.
Karthikeyan,S.,R.M.Athreya&J.N.Prasad(1993):Rangeextension Whitaker, R. & I. Das (1990): Scrubland Calotes nemoricola?
of Calotes nemoricola from the Anamalais, Western Ghats. Hamadryad15: 29-30.
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (1), Jan-Apr 2008 99