v12i1.300

Submitted date: 5 August 2022
Accepted date: 29 January 2023
Published date: 12 May 2023
Pp. 28

New records of hump-nosed viper Hypnale nepa from the Horton Plains, Sri Lanka

P.A.B.P. Abeyrathne*, R.A.G.N. Ranatunga, S.S. Abayaratne & S.K. Bandara
*Corresponding author. E-mail: babeyrathne@sci.sjp.ac.lk

The Sri Lankan Hump-nosed Viper, Hypnale nepa (Laurenti, 1768) is an endemic species restricted to montane regions above 900 m in Sri Lanka. The Horton Plains is a national park and a montane forest (alt. 2,100–2,300 m a.s.l.) mostly covered by wet grasslands. Faunal surveys carried out in the Horton Plains have so far recorded only three species of snakes: Aspidura trachyprocta, A. copei, and Ptyas mucosa. Herein, we confirm a fourth snake species, and the first photographic
evidence of the occurrence of H. nepa from the Horton Plains, based on two observations made during random visits.

Section Editor: Gernot Vogel