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INDIAN REGION
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See also:INDIAN REGION .—Of Crocodilia C. palustris, the " mugger " or See also:marsh See also:crocodile, and C. porosus; Gavialis gangeticus; Tomistoma schlegeli in See also:Borneo, Malacca and See also:Sumatra. Of tortoises Platy-sternum megacephalum, type of a See also:family from See also:Siam to S. See also:China; many Trionychidae and Testudinidae, mostly aquatic; whilst the terrestrial Testudo is very scantily represented. One See also:species which is See also:common in the Indian See also:peninsula (T. stellata) is so similar to an See also:African species as to have been considered identical with it; the Burmese See also:tortoise is also closely allied to it, and the two others extend far into western-central See also:Asia. Thus this type is to be considered rather an immigrant from its See also:present headquarters, See also:Africa, than a survivor of the Indian See also:Tertiary See also:fauna, which comprised the most extraordinary forms of See also:land tortoises. See also:Wallace's See also:line marks the E. boundary of Trionyx; species of this genus are common in See also:Java and Borneo, and occur likewise in the Philippine Islands, but are not found in See also:Celebes, See also:Amboyna or any of the other islands E. of Wallace's line. Agamidae are exceedingly numerous, and are represented chiefly by arboreal forms, e.g. See also:Draco (q.v.) is See also:peculiar to the region, Ceratophora and Lyriocephalus exclusively Ceylonese; terrestrial forms, like Agama and Uromastix, inhabit the hot and sandy plains in the N.W., and pass uninterruptedly into the fauna of western-central Asia and Africa. The Geckonidae, Scincidae and Varanidae are likewise well represented, but without giving a characteristic feature to the region by See also:special modification of the leading forms except the See also:gecko Ptychozoon homalocephalum in Malaya. The Lacertidae are represented by one characteristic genus, Tachydromus—Ophiops and Cabrita being more See also:developed beyond the limits assigned to this region. Finally, the Eublepharidae and Anguidae, families whose living representatives are probably the scattered remains of once widely and more generally distributed types, have retained respectively two species in W. See also:India, and one in the Khasi Hills, whilst the presence of a single species of See also:chameleon in S. India and See also:Ceylon reminds us again of the relations of this See also:part of the fauna to that of Africa. The Indian region excels all the other tropical countries in the See also:great variety of genuine types and See also:numbers of species of See also:snakes. Boulenger' recognizes 267 species, i.e. about one-fifth of the See also:total number of snakes known. India is the only See also:country in the See also:world possessing viperine, crotaline and elapine poisonous snakes (their proportion to harmless snakes being about I : Io), e.g. Vipera russelli, the " daboia " (see See also:VIPER) ; Lachesis, e.g. gramineus, an arboreal See also:pit viper; Naja tripudians, the See also:cobra; Bungarus coeruleus, the " krait "; Callophis; and Hydrophinae along the coasts of the whole region. Several sub-families and families are peculiar to the region: the Uropeltidae with Rhino phis in See also:southern India, and Uropeltis confined to Ceylon; Ilysiidae in Ceylon and See also:Malay Islands, elsewhere only in S. See also:America; the opisthoglyphous Elachistodon westermanni of See also:Bengal; the Homalopsinae, with many species from Bengal to N. See also:Australia; further the Amblycephalidae; Xenopeltis unicolor, See also:sole type of a family; and the Acrochordinae, a sub-family of aglyphous Colubridae, ranging from the Khasi Hills to New See also:Guinea. Of other Colubridae, we See also:notice numerous Tropidonotus, Coronella. and Zamenis, the latter one of the most characteristic types of the warmer parts of Eurasia. See also:Tree-snakes, e.g. Dipsas and Dendrophis, are common. Of other families we See also:note a great number of Typhlopidae, of which T. braminus occurs even on See also:Christmas See also:Island. Lastly various species of See also:Python, but no Glauconiidae, the only family not represented in the Indian region, which claims the Uropeltidae, Xenopeltidae and Amblycephalidae as ppeculiar to itself. See also:Gunther remarks that to this region See also:Japan has to be referred. This is clearly shown by the presence of species of See also:Ophites,Callophis, Trimeresurus s. Lachesis, Tachydromus, characteristically Indian forms, with which species of Clemmys, Trionyx, Gecko, Halys, and some Colubrines closely allied to See also:Chinese and Central See also:Asiatic species are associated. Halys is a central Asiatic pit viper. The few See also:reptiles inhabiting the See also:northern part of Japan are probably of palaearctic origin. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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