COMMON LEOPERD GECKO

Eublepharis fuscus

BEAKED WORM SNAKE

Rhinotyphlops acutus

INDIAN STAR TORTOISE

Geochelone elegans

Carapace very convex, dorsal shields often forming humps; lateral margins nearly vertical; posterior margin somewhat expanded and strongly serrated; no nuchal; supracaudal undivided, incurved in the male; shields strongly striated concentrically; first vertebral longer than broad, the others broader than long, third at least as broad as the corresponding costal. Plastron large, truncated or openly notched in front, deeply notched, bifid behind; suture between the humerals much longer than that between the femorals; suture between the pectorals very short; axillary and inguinal rather small. Head moderate; forehead swollen, convex, and covered with rather small and irregular shields; beak feebly hooked, bi- or tricuspid; edge of jaws denticulated; alveolar ridge of upper jaw strong. Outer-anterior face of fore limb with numerous unequal-sized, large, imbricate, bony, pointed tubercles; heel with large, more or less spur-like tubercles; a group of large conical or subconical tubercles on the hinder side of the thigh. Carapace black, with yellow areolae from which yellow streaks radiate; these streaks usually narrow and very numerous: plastron likewise with black and yellow radiating streaks. The Indian Star Tortoise can grow 10 inches long.

BANDED KRAIT

Bungarus fasciatus

B. fasciatus is easily identified by its alternate black and yellow bands, its triangular body cross-section and the marked vertebral ridge consisting of enlarged vertebral shields along its body. The head is broad and depressed. The eyes are black. It has arrowhead-like yellow markings on its otherwise black head and has yellow lips, lore, chin and throat.

SQUARE SPOTTED GECKO

Hemidactylus gracilis

The head is narrow and elongated, with the snout a little longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening. The forehead is not concave, the ear-opening is small and roundish. The body and limbs are slender.

The snout has polygonal rugose scales, the back of the head has small granules.

The body is covered above with coarse granules intermixed with oval, subtrihedral, strongly keeled tubercles arranged in about twelve irregular longitudinal series. Abdominal scales are large.

The tail is round, but slightly depressed at the base and not at all further back, tapering, without any enlarged or spinose tubercles whatever. Grey above, with subquadrangular black spots arranged in longitudinal series. There is a black streak white-edged above on the side of the head, passing through the eye; whitish beneath, with or without longitudinal grey lines.

Type locality: southeastern Berar and Reipur, Central Provinces.

WILD VIDARBHA

lined writhing skink (Lygosoma lineata)

REFFERENCES-

• Gray,J.E. 1839 Catalogue of the slender-tongued saurians, with descriptions of many new genera and species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1) 2: 331-337 (287-293)
• Naik Y M; Vinod K R 1994 Record of a rare skink Lygosoma lineata (Gray, 1839) from Kevadia, Gujarat. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 91 (2): 324-325.