Sibynophis collaris, commonly known as the common many-toothed snake,Betty's many toothed snake or the collared black-headed snake,[4] is a species of colubridsnakeendemic to South and East Asia.
Description
Rostral scale twice as broad as deep, just visible from above; suture between the internasals shorter than that between the prefrontals; frontal longer than its distance from the end of the snout, as long as the parietals or shorter; loreal as long as or a little longer than deep; one preocular; two postoculars, only the upper in contact with the parietal; temporals 1 (or 2) + 2; 9 or 10 upper labials, fourth, fifth, and sixth entering the eye; 4 lower labials in contact with the anterior chin shields, which are as long as the posterior chin shields. Dorsal scales smooth, without apical pits, in 17 rows. Ventrals 159–190; anal divided; subcaudals divided, 102–131.
Brown above, vertebral region greyish, usually with a series of small round black spots; head with small black spots or vermiculations above, and two black crossbands, one across the posterior part of the frontal and supraoculars, the other across the occiput; a large black nuchal spot or crossband, bordered with yellow posteriorly; a black line from the nostril to the nuchal spot, passing through the eye, bordering the white black-dotted upper lip. Lower parts yellowish, each ventral with an outer black spot or streak, which may be confluent on the posterior part of the body; anterior ventrals with a pair of median dots in addition.
^Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Colubridæ Aglyphæ, Part. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. xiii + 440 pp. + Plates I.-XXVIII. (Polyodontophis collaris, pp. 184–185 & Plate XII, Figures 1., 1a., 1b., & 1c.)
^Das, Indraneil. 2002. A Photographic guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of India. Ralph Curtis Books. Sanibel Island, Florida. 144 pp. ISBN0-88359-056-5 (Sibynophis collaris, p. 45.)
^Boulenger, G.A. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, Printers). London. 541 pp. (Polyodontophis collaris, pp. 301–303.)
Further reading
Gray, J.E. 1853. Descriptions of some undescribed species of Reptiles collected by Dr. Joseph Hooker in the Khassia Mountains, East Bengal, and Sikkim Himalaya. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) 12: 386–392. (Psammophis collaris, p. 390.)
