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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 383 31. FIRST RECORD OF THE SUNBEAM SNAKE XENOPELTIS UNICOLOR REINWARDT, 1827 (SERPENTES: XENOPELTIDAE) FROM GREAT NICOBAR ISLAND The sunbeam snake or iridescent Earth snake eight upperlabials, firstin contactwith the intemasal, Xenopeltis unicolor is the sole representative of the fourth and fifth touching the eye; a pair ofsmall chin family Xenopeltidae. It derives its name from the shields, in contact with the three anterior lower iridescence ofits smooth scales. This species is dis- labials; body cylindrical and covered with smooth tributed over south India, Burma, Indo-China, the scales in 15 rows; ventrals (173-196) well developed Malay Peninsula and Archipelago (Boulenger 1893). (Boulenger (1893) reports a ventral count of 166-193 Recently a newspeciesXenopeltishainanensisfound in this species); tail short and subcaudals (24-31) in in the southern People’s Republic ofChina has been two rows (Smith 1943). The snake varies from black described (Mehrtens 1987). tobrown in colour,with a whitish-grey venter. Specimens have been recorded from the An- A nocturnal animal, it burrows into the earth daman Islands by Theobald (1868) and are found in and is generally found in rice fields, lowland river the reptilia collection of the Zoological Survey of valleys, and places with damp soil. It is a harmless India (Biswas and Sanyal 1980). This is the first snake, feeding on small mammals, frogs, snakes and record ofthis species from the Nicobar Islands. The birds, and has not been known to bite when handled. specimen was collected, and later released, by a When excited it vibrates its tail vigorously. It is ‘Ranchi’ tribal on Great Nicobar Island. Locally it is oviparous, laying about 18 eggs in a clutch. Large called ‘tael-sap’. adults grow up to a metre in length; the average size Xenopeltis is the single genus of the family issomewhatless.Very littleofitsbiology isknown. Xenopeltidae and has several unique characters. In The following morphological data was col- addition to the occipital shield and loss of the lected for the specimen found on Great Nicobar Is- postfrontal bone, the auditory bones are different land: from any other snake, except Cylindrophis rufus Total length: 51.1 cm; Snout-vent: 46.3 cm, (Smith 1943). Head-width (jaws): 12.55 mm, Upper labials : 8, The species has the following characteristics: Lower labials: 10,Mid body count: 15, Ventrals: 171, snout rounded; head depressed and not distinct from Subcaudals: 24. the neck; eyes small with vertically elliptic pupils; I thank John for finding this snake and bringing nostril between two small nasals; interparietal about it to me alive. aslarge asthe parietals; loreal absent; large preocular and two large postoculars; small supraoculars; numerous small, equal teeth; mental groove present; June4, 1992 MANJULA TIWARI References Biswas, S. & SanyalD.P. (1980): Areporton the reptilian PublishingCo. Inc.,NewYork. fauna ofAndaman and Nicobar Islands in thecollec- Smith, M.A. (1943):Thefauna ofBritish India,Ceylonand tion of Zoological Survey of India. Rec. zool. Surv. Burma,includingthewholeofthe Indo-Chinesesub- India77:255-292. region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol III, Serpentes. Boulenger, G.A. (1893): Catalogue of the snakes in the TaylorandFrancis, London. British Museum (Natural History). Volume I. Taylor Theobald, W. (1868): Catalogue ofreptiles in the museum andFrancis,London. of the astiatic society of bengal.J. Asiat. Soc., extra Mehrtens,J.M.(1987): Livingsnakesoftheworld.Sterling number,Calcutta. 32. STRANGE BEHAVIOUR OF A MURREL CHANNA STRIATUS (BL.) On 1 March 1991* at about 0830 hrs I, along shore we came across a small, discarded wooden with two friends, was walking along the shallow boat, partly submerged in the lake. All the sides of shore of the lake, watching aquatic birds. Near the the boat were above the water but inside there was 384 JOURNAL BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 89 wateruptoabout three fourths the length ofthe boat. murrel, but could not identify the species. As we approached the boat a fish jumped out After some time we saw a boat with fishermen. from inside the boat and landed in the lake. I ex- We hailed them and requested them to catch thisfish. aminedtheboatforother fish butthere were nonein- When the murrel returned to the boat, one of the side. The stagnant water inside the boat was full of fishermen threw a net over the boat and caught the small larvae,probably ofmosquitoes. fish byhand.It was identified as Cheinnastriatus. We retreated about 20 m from the boat to find After that we dragged the boat out of the water out what kind of fish it was and how it had entered andfoundthat,exceptfortwosmallholesofabout3*x2 theboat. Within sevenminutesa fishbroke waterand cm, the entirebottom was intact. Howthe murrel came landed inside the boat. When I tried to approach the toknowthat therewaswater insidethatboatwith plen- boat close enough to watch the fish, it again jumped tyoffoodintheshapeoflarvaeisamysterytome. from the boat and escaped into the lake. This was repeated five times. I could make out that it was a February 15,1992 RAZATEHSIN RECENT OBSERVATIONS ON THE LONGEVITY OF MEGALOPS 33. CYPRINOIDES (BROUSS.) In my previous note in the Society’s Journal abovespecieswascaught and measured foritslength (Kulkami 1983), I had mentioned different reports and weight. This marine fish spends only a short about longevity of certain fishes. These contained period (four to five months) in estuarine waters and some anecdotes and indirect deductions also. Even then returns to the sea; it is not known to breed in Lagler et al. (1977) merely mention “authenticated fresh waters; neither smaller specimens nor fingerl- records ofages ofcaptive fishes suggest that ages of ings were ever captured during the past 20 years. It mostvenerated old carpdo notexceed 50years.”The was thus clear that the specimen caught on that day present note extends the limit to 52 years. belonged to the batch offingerlings released in 1939. In the earlier note I had given a dependable Moreover, there was no fresh stocking ofMegalops record ofthe longevity ofthe Indian tarponMegalops after that year which I know quite definitely, beingin cyprinoides (Brouss.) being not less than 44 years in charge of the Dept, of Fisheries till October 1969. the fresh waterofWalwan lake atLonavla, dist. Pune These facts indicate that the fish could be at least 52 (Maharashtra). After the study ofbreedingbiology of years ofage (two years more than what Lagler et al. the mahseer fish commenced in the above lake 1977 reported). (Kulkami 1971), every year inthemonthsofJuly and Surprisingly enough the fish had grown very lit- August, when a particular section ofthe lake (which tle during the past twenty years. In 1970, some in- the fish appeared to prefer) was netted for the collec- dividualswere recorded tobe 65 cm in length and2.8 tion of ripe mahseer specimens for their artificial kg. in weight (Kulkami 1983) while those caught in fecundation, a few individuals ofMegalops were en- 1983 were 67 cm in length and weighed between tangled accidentally in the nets, indicating that they 2.75 and 3.1 kg. This stagnation in growth was fur- had continued to survive there. Not much notice was ther confirmed by the specimen caught in August taken ofthis occurrence. However, since 1983, 1 had 1991, beingonly 67 cm in length and 3 kg in weight. kept a close watch on the survival of this species in This shows that after a certain growth in fresh water the lake. In the note I had recounted how this marine the fish just survives without gaining weight or or partly estuarine fish happened to be found in the length. The stagnation could not be due to lack of fresh waters of the lake. Fingerlings of Megalops food because the lake had an abundance of aquatic were introduced into the lake as a cyclopscidal fish life on which theMegalopsnormally feed, but could for control ofguinea worm pest (Setna and Kulkami beduetohavingreacheditsnormalmaximumsize.The 1940)and alsoasagoodsportfish,byFisheriesSection F.A.O. identification sheet mentions only 55 cm as ofthe then Bombay Presidency in July 1939 (vide An- maximum length. Incidentally, the above observations nual ReportoftheDept, ofIndustries,1939-40). provideaslightly improvedrecordofgrowth ofthefish. During one of the aforesaid type of fishing operations on 11 August 1991 a specimen of the July 2, 1992 C.V. KULKARNI