Ridgehead snake

Ridgehead snake
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Manolepis; Cope, 1885
Species:	M. putnami
Binomial name
	Manolepis putnami; (Jan, 1863)
Synonyms
	Dromicus putnami ; Jan, 1863; Tomodon nasutus ; Cope, 1864; Manolepis nasutus ; — Cope, 1885; Dromicus (Ocyophis) putnami ; — Bocourt, 1890; Philodryas putnami ; — Günther, 1895; Manolepis putnami ; — Boulenger, 1896;

The ridgehead snake (Manolepis putnami) is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to southeastern Mexico.

Etymology

The specific name, putnami, is in honor of American anthropologist Frederic Ward Putnam.^[4]

Taxonomy

M. putnami is the type species of the monotypic genus Manolepis.^[2]

Geographic range

M. putnami is found in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Oaxaca.^[2]

Habitat

The natural habitat of M. putnami is forest.^[1]

Description

M. putnami may attain a total length of 55 cm (22 in), including a tail 14 cm (5.5 in) long. Dorsally, it is pale brown or yellowish, with a brown, darker-edged vertebral stripe three scales wide. Ventrally it is whitish, speckled with brown. The dorsal scales are smooth, without apical pits, and in 19 rows at midbody. The anal plate is divided, and the subcaudals are in two rows.^[3]

M. putnami is rear-fanged (opisthoglyphous). It has 15 small, equal maxillary teeth, followed, after a space, by two enlarged grooved fangs. The anterior mandibular teeth are much longer than the posterior.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Ponce-Campos, P.; García Aguayo, A. (2007). "Manolepis putnami". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2007: e.T63843A12721371. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2007.RLTS.T63843A12721371.en. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Species Manolepis putnami at The Reptile Database . www.reptile-database.org.
^ ^a ^b ^c Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ) ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I-XXV. (Genus Manolepis p. 120; species Manolepis putnami, new combination, p. 120).
^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Monolepis putnami, p. 213).