About Ahaetulla malabarica Mallik, Srikanthan, Pal, D'Souza, Shanker & Ganesh, 2020
This species, Ahaetulla malabarica, has a very slender body, and adults can reach a total snout-to-tail length of 1 meter. Its dorsum is uniformly bright green, and can sometimes appear sunset yellow to light bronzy brown. The rostral scale, infralabials, and mid-body venter range from bright green to lighter green, or turmeric yellow to light brown; some infralabials have small white patches. A yellow or white ventral stripe runs along notched ventral keels, starting a few scale rows after the nape. There is slight discoloration on the preocular scale. Spaces between scales are white, marked with black and white anteriorly-converging bars; the white coloration becomes uniformly pinkish toward the posterior. Eyes are golden yellow to orange with black speckles. Black speckles are concentrated at both the anterior and posterior ends of the horizontal pupil, and the area around the pupil is light blue or yellow. The tail and subcaudals are green. Scalation follows intraspecific variation, with the following recorded traits: ventrals 167–183, notched with keels; subcaudals 124–155, divided; dorsal scales arranged in 15-15–13/11/9 rows of smooth, obliquely positioned scales; anal scale divided; supralabials 8–9, with the 5th supralabial in contact with the eye, and the 4th supralabial divided; infralabials 8–9; pre-suboculars 1–2; 1 preocular on both the left and right side; postoculars 2; suboculars absent; temporals 1+2 or 2+2. This species is distributed across the southern portion of the central Western Ghats, ranging from the Palghat Gap in Tamil Nadu and Kerala north to Tadiandamol in Karnataka. The related species Ahaetulla farnsworthi occurs to the north of Ahaetulla malabarica's range, and may be sympatric with it in Coorg, though the two species are largely separated by rivers. Another related species, Ahaetulla isabellina, occurs to the south of Ahaetulla malabarica's range, and is separated from it by the Palghat Gap. This species inhabits mid-elevation evergreen forests in the Western Ghats, found between approximately 650 to 1400 meters above sea level.
