Oligodon purpurascens
Authors/Creators
Description
Oligodon purpurascens (Schlegel, 1837) — Native; Indeterminate.
Xenodon purpurascens Schlegel, 1837: 90–91, 139, pl. 3, figs. 13, 14. Syntypes (3): RMNH.RENA.242a– c, by original designation. Type locality: “du Mont Parang à l’île de Java ” (= Gunung Parang, Purwakarta Regency, West Java, Indonesia).
Brown Kukri Snake (Figure 19F)
Simotes purpurascens var. F— Ģnther, 1858b: 26.
Lycodon dennysi —Dennys, 1880: 3.
Simotes goniospilus Dennys, 1880a: 3.— Dennys, 1881a: 2.— Dennys, 1881b: 2.
Simotes dennysi — Blanford, 1881: 215, 218–219.
Simotes purpurascens —Sclater, 1891a: 23.— Boulenger, 1894: 218.— Flower, 1896: 884.— Flower, 1899: 671.—Ridley, 1899: 198, 208 (Bukit Timah Road).— Boulenger, 1912: 148.— Hanitsch, 1912b: 16.— de Rooij, 1917: 126.
Simotes purpurascens var. B— Hanitsch, 1898: 20.
Simotes cyclurus var. E (non-Cantor, 1839b)— Hanitsch, 1899: 12 (Botanic Gardens).— Hanitsch, 1912b: 16.
Simotes cyclurus (non-Cantor, 1839b)—Ridley, 1899: 208.
Simotes purpurascens —Sworder, 1923: 64.—Sworder, 1924b: 21 (“near Mandai Railway Station” [GBF]).
Holarchus cyclurus (non-Cantor, 1839b)—Sworder, 1923: 64.—Sworder, 1924b: 21.
Oligodon purpurascens — Smith, 1930: 53.—F.L.K. Lim & M.T.-M. Lee, 1989: 115.—K.K.P. Lim & L.M. Chou, 1990: 54.—K.K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 1992: 60, 146.—L.M. Chou et al., 1994: 105.— K.K.P. Lim, 1994b: 331.— David & Vogel, 1996: 102.— Manthey & Grossmann, 1997: 371.— Cox et al., 1998: 59.—Chan-ard et al., 1999: 34.—K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 2002: 146.—T.M. Leong & L.L. Grismer, 2004: 15.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2008: 105, 161.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2008: 265.— Das, 2010: 293.—L.L. Grismer, 2011a: 206.—P.K.L. Ng et al., 2011: 272.—van Rooijen et al., 2011: 216.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2012: 105, 161.— Das, 2012a: 57.—Wallach et al., 2014: 502.—Chan-ard et al., 2015: 179.— Das, 2018: 69.—O’Shea, 2018: 200.— Charlton, 2020: 183.—K.K.P. Lim, 2020: 2, 5 (Sime Road Internment Camp [= SICC]).—A.Y.H. Goh, 2022: 1 (Terentang Trail [= MNF]).
Oligodon purpurascens purpurascens — de Haas, 1950: 557.—Taylor, 1965: 770.— Iskandar & Colijn, 2001: 75.—Tillack & R. Ģnther, 2010: 277, 278.— de Lang, 2017: 177.
Holarchus purpurascens — Cross, 2020m: 1, 5 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020n: 2, 7 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).
Remarks. Oligodon purpurascens has been recorded from Singapore under three different names: Simotes purpurascens, S. dennysi, and S. (or Holarchus) cyclurus (see references above), a consequence of the species colour dimorphism occurring in a purple or brown phase. Variation in O. purpurascens was known since Ģnther (1858b) who first reported it from Singapore from two specimens at NHMUK that he classified as “variety F” (purple phase). Dennys (1880) used the name Lycodon dennysi and then Simotes goniospilus to refer to a grey colour morph specimen at the Raffles Museum. This specimen was clearly believed to be a new species and the names applied may have been tentative designations given to Dennys from someone at NHMUK, most likely Blanford who later described S. dennysi using that specimen as the holotype (Table 1). Simotes goniospilus could have been a misspelling of the junior synonym S. aphanospilus, if the specimen was indeed confused with O. ancorus, a species endemic to the Philippines (Wallach et al. 2014). Nonetheless, Boulenger (1894) later synonymised it with O. purpurascens. Hanitsch (1899, 1913), Ridley (1899), and Sworder (1923, 1924b) each listed S. cyclurus to describe a specimen collected at SBG by Ridley in 1897 (Hanitsch 1899) which Smith identified as an aberrant O. purpurascens (Sworder 1924). Additional early records of O. purpurascens include a specimen at ZSI (Sclater 1891a), a specimen donated by a governor of Singapore to NHMUK (Boulenger 1894), one that Ridley (1899) captured on Bukit Timah Road, one Sworder (1924b) collected near Mandai Railway Station in June 1923, and two specimens at LKCNHM collected at Changi, ZRC. 2.3877 in 1927 and ZRC. 2.3878 in February 1928. Oligodon purpurascens is exceedingly rare in Singapore not having been reported since June 1923 (Sworder 1924b), until a photograph of one from Singapore Zoo (F.L.K. Lim pers. comm.) was published 69 years later (Table 2) in Lim & Lim (1992). However, Cross (2020m) recorded two specimens from Sime Road Internment Camp in 1944 that went unpublished until now (Lim 2020). Since Lim & Lim (1992), three specimens have been collected, ZRC.2.6216 from USR on 9 October 2006, ZRC.2.6719 from OUTR on 26 August 2007, and ZRC.2.7243 from Mandai Track 7 on 7 May 2017, and a live individual was photographed on 18 May 2001 at LPF (Fig. 19F) (B.Y.H. Lee pers. comm.) and at MNF on 27 July 2022 (Goh 2022).
Occurrence. Known from a few specimens predating 1923 and five specimens after 1992. Rare.
Singapore conservation status. Critically Endangered.
Conservation priority. Highest.
IUCN conservation status. Least Concern [2012].
LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): BMNH 1883.11.28.13 (no date); Botanic Gardens: ZRC.2.3879 (Mar-1897); Changi: ZRC.2.3877 (1927), ZRC.2.3878 (Feb-1928); Mandai Track 7: ZRC.2.7243 (07-May-2017); Old Upper Thomson Road: ZRC.2.6719 (26-Aug-2007); Upper Seletar Reservoir: ZRC.2.6216 (09-Oct-2006).
Additional Singapore museum specimens. No specimens.
Singapore localities. Bukit Timah Road*—Changi*—Gali Batu Forest—Lower Peirce Forest—MacRitchie North Forest—Mandai Track 7—Old Upper Thomson Road—Singapore Botanic Gardens*—Singapore Island Country Club—Singapore Zoo—Upper Seletar Reservoir.
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Collection code
- BMNH , LKCNHM, NHMUK , SICC , ZRC
- Material sample ID
- BMNH 1883.11
- Event date
- 2006-10-09 , 2007-08-26 , 2017-05-07
- Verbatim event date
- 2006-10-09 , 2007-08-26 , 2017-05-07
- Scientific name authorship
- Schlegel
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Colubridae
- Genus
- Oligodon
- Species
- purpurascens
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Oligodon purpurascens (Schlegel, 1837) sec. Figueroa, Low & Lim, 2023
References
- Gnther, A. (1858 b) Catalogue of Colubrine Snakes in the Collection of the British Museum. Trustees [of the British Museum], London, xvi + 281 pp.
- Dennys, N. B. (1880 a) The snakes of Singapore I. Singapore Daily Times, 20 December 1880, 2 - 3.
- Dennys, N. B. (1881 a) The snakes of Singapore III. Singapore Daily Times, 10 January 1881, 2.
- Dennys, N. B. (1881 b) The snakes of Singapore IV. Singapore Daily Times, 24 March 1881, 2 - 3.
- Blanford, W. T. (1881) On a collection of reptiles and frogs chiefly from Singapore. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1881 (1), 215 - 226, pls. 20 - 21. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 101596
- Boulenger, G. A. (1894) Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. II. Containing the conclusion of the Colubridae Aglyphae. Taylor and Francis, London, xi + 382 pp., 20 pls.
- Flower, S. S. (1896) Notes on a collection of reptiles and batrachians made in the Malay Peninsula in 1895 - 96; with a list of the species recorded from that region. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1896 (4), 856 - 914, pls. 44 - 46.
- Flower, S. S. (1899 b) Notes on a second collection of reptiles made in the Malay Peninsula and Siam, from November 1896 - September 1898, with a list of the species recorded from those countries. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1899 (4), 600 - 696, pls. 36 - 37.
- Boulenger, G. A. (1912) A Vertebrate Fauna of the Malay Peninsula from the Isthmus of Kra to Singapore, Including the Adjacent Islands. Reptilia and Batrachia, Taylor and Francis, London, xiii + 294 pp. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 10813
- Hanitsch, R. (1912 b) List of the Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians in the Raffles Museum, Singapore. Raffles Library and Museum, Singapore, 19 pp.
- de Rooij, N. (1917) The Reptiles of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. II. Ophidia. E. J. Brill, Leiden, xiv + 334 pp. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 10610
- Hanitsch, R. (1898) Annual report of the curator and librarian on the Raffles Library and Museum, for the Year Ending 31 st December, 1897. In: Straits Settlements, Annual Reports for the Year 1898. Published by Authority, Singapore, pp. 11 - 22.
- Hanitsch, R. (1899) Annual report of the curator and librarian on the Raffles Library and Museum, for the Year Ending 31 st December, 1898. In: Straits Settlements, Annual Reports for the Year 1898. Published by Authority, Singapore, pp. 7 - 16.
- Lim, K. K. P. & Lim, F. L. K. (1992) A Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Singapore. Singapore Science Centre, Singapore, 160 pp.
- Chou L. M., Ng, P. K. L. & Lim, K. K. P. (1994) Animalia. In: Wee, Y. C. & Ng, P. K. L. (Eds.), A First Look at Biodiversity in Singapore. National Council on the Environment, Singapore, pp. 70 - 106.
- Lim, K. K. P. (1994 b) Reptiles. In: Ng, P. K. L. & Wee, Y. C. (Eds.), The Singapore Red Data Book: Threatened Plants and Animals of Singapore. Nature Society, Singapore, pp. 213 - 227.
- David, P. & Vogel, G. (1996) The Snakes of Sumatra: An Annotated Checklist and Key with Natural History Notes. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt-am-Main, 260 pp.
- Manthey, U. & Grossmann, W. (1997) Amphibien und Reptilian Sudostasien. Natur und Tier, M ¸ nster, 512 pp.
- Cox, M. J., van Dijk, P. P., Nabhitabhata, J. & Thirakhupt, K. (1998) A Photographic Guide toSnakes and other Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. New Holland Publishers, London, 144 pp.
- Lim, K. P. & Lim, F. L. K. (2002) A Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Singapore. Revised Edition. Singapore Science Centre, Singapore, 160 pp.
- Das, I. (2010) A Field Guide to the Reptiles of Thailand and South-East Asia. New Holland, London, 376 pp.
- Grismer, L. L. (2011 a) Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Seribuat Archipelago (Peninsular Malaysia). Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, 239 pp.
- Das, I. (2012 a) A Naturalist's Guide to the Snakes of South-East Asia. John Beaufoy Publishing, Oxford, 160 pp.
- Das, I. (2018) A Naturalist's Guide to the Snakes of Southeast Asia. 2 nd Edition. John Beaufoy Publishing, Oxford, 176 pp.
- Charlton, T. (2020) A Guide to Snakes of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Natural History Publications (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd., Kota Kinabalu, viii + 299 pp.
- Lim K. K. P. (2020) Snakes and lizards recorded by Alexander Cross in Singapore from 1942 to 1945. Singapore Biodiversity Records, 2020 (Spec. No.), 1 - 6.
- de Haas, C. P. J. (1950) Checklist of the snakes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago (Reptiles, Ophidia). Treubia, 20 (3), 511 - 625.
- Iskandar, D. T. & Colijn, E. (2001) A Checklist of Southeast Asian and New Guinean Reptiles. Part I. Serpentes. Biodiversity Conservation Project (Indonesian Institute of Sciences - Japan International Cooperation Agency - The Ministry of Forestry). The Gibbon Foundation and Institute of Technology, Bandung, 195 pp.
- de Lang, R. (2017) The Snakes of Java, Bali and Surrounding Islands. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, 435 pp.
- Cross, A. (2020 m) Notes on the species of Ophidia and Lacertilia obtained in Sime Road Internment Camp, Singapore, between 1 st May and 25 th August 1945. Singapore Biodiversity Records, 2020 (Spec. No. 13), 1 - 6.
- Cross, A. (2020 n) Compilation of Ophidia and Lacertilia recorded in Singapore from 1942 to 1945. Singapore Biodiversity Records, 2020 (Spec. No. 14), 1 - 8.