Fowlea melanzosta

Fowlea melanzosta, also commonly known as the Javan keelback water snake and the Javanese keelback water snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Indonesia.

Fowlea melanzosta
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Fowlea
Species:	F. melanzosta
Binomial name
Fowlea melanzosta (Gravenhorst, 1807)
Synonyms
Coluber melanzostus Gravenhorst, 1807 Tropidonotus melanzostus — H. Boie, 1826 Coluber lippus Reuss, 1834 Tropidonotus quincunciatus var. melanzostus — L. Müller, 1890 Tropidonotus piscator var. melanzosta — Boettger, 1892 Natrix piscator melanzostus — M.A. Smith, 1943 Xenochrophis piscator melanozostus — Bosch, 1985 Xenochrophis melanozostus — Das, 1996 Xenochrophis flavipunctatus melanozostus — Manthey & Grossmann, 1997 Fowlea melanzostus — Purkayastha et al., 2019 Fowlea melanzosta — Amarasinghe et al., 2022

Geographic range

F. melanzosta is found in Java and Bali, Indonesia.

Habitat

F. melanzosta is a common species typically encountered in rice paddies, but it also occurs near lakes, rivers, streams, marshes, and in grassland.

Reproduction

F. melanzosta is oviparous.

Further reading

• Gravenhorst JLC (1807). Vergleichende Übersicht des Linneischen und einiger neueren zoologischen Systeme, nebst dem eingeschalteten Verseichnisse der zoologischen Sammlung des Verfassers und den Beschreibungen neuer Thierarten, die in derselben vorhanden sind. Göttingen: Heinrich Dietrich. i–xvi + 476 pp. (Coluber melanzostus, new species, p. 402). (in German).
• Manthey U, Grossmann W (1997). Amphibien und Reptilien Südostasiens. Münster: Natur und Tier Verlag. 512 pp. ISBN 978-3931587123. (Xenochrophus flavipunctatus melanozostus).