20. Dendrelaphis wickrorum

Danushka, Kanishka, Amarasinghe, Vogel & Seneviratne, 2020

Publication :

Danushka AD, AS Kanishka, AAT Amarasinghe, G Vogel & SS Seneviratne (2020). A new species of Dendrelaphis Boulenger, 1890 (Reptilia: Colubridae) from the wet zone of Sri Lanka with a redescription of Dendrelaphis bifrenalis (Boulenger, 1890). Taprobanica 9 (1): 83–102

Remarks :

We discovered Dendrelaphis wickrorum from the wet zone forests, Sri Lanka. This species is distributed until the submontane forests and most closely resembles Dendrelaphis bifrenalis (BOULENGER, 1890) which i distributed in the lowlands forests in the dry zone of Sri Lanka.


Etymology:
The specific epithet is a noun in the genitive case, honoring Mr. L.J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and his wife Mrs. Nethu Wickramasinghe for their remarkable contributions to the field of herpetology in Sri Lanka. Especially, Mendis Wickramasinghe‘s enormous effort in popularizing snake conservation among the general public is highly commendable. We shorten their modern name to the stem [Wickr] and formed in case of plural adding the suffix [-orum].

English name: Wickramasinghes' Bronze-back
Sinhala (local) name: වික්‍රමසිංහලාගේ හාල්-දණ්ඩා