Boiga irregularis ( Bechstein, 1802 )

Karin, Benjamin R., Stubbs, Alexander L., Arifin, Umilaela, Bloch, Luke M., Ramadhan, G., Iskandar, Djoko T., Arida, Evy, Reilly, Sean B., Kusnadi, Agus & Mcguire, Jimmy A., 2018, The herpetofauna of the Kei Islands (Maluku, Indonesia): Comprehensive report on new and historical collections, biogeographic patterns, conservation concerns, and an annotated checklist of species from Kei Kecil, Kei Besar, Tam, and Kur, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 66, pp. 704-738 : 729

Boiga irregularis ( Bechstein, 1802)

Type locality. Unknown.

Distribution in the Kei Islands. We collected a single specimen of B. irregularis on Kei Kecil. The AM, WAM and ZMUC expeditions have collected a total of seven specimens of B. irregularis from Kei Besar.

Natural history. A mildly venomous, rear-fanged snake. The single specimen we collected was found crossing the road during the day. In Australia, it is usually arboreal or rock inhabiting, but is also often found in the rafters of buildings ( Wilson & Swan, 2013, p. 470).

Field identification. Boiga irregularis is a long and slender (average length 1.4 m), weakly venomous rear-fanged colubrid with large, catlike eyes with vertical pupils, a bulbous head that is distinct from a narrow neck, 19–23 mid-body scale rows, 225–265 ventrals, 85–130 divided subcaudals, and a single anal scale ( Wilson & Swan, 2013, Natural history. This fast-moving colubrid was found active during the day darting around the base of medium to large trees in plantation forest.

Field identification. An extremely slender, non-venomous, small to medium sized tree snake (mean SVL 75.5 cm). van Rooijen et al. (2015) elevated D. keiensis to full species from specimens from Babar and the Kei Islands, re-describing the species from the holotype and two additional specimens as follows: venter white; no temporal stripe; 8–10 supralabials; 211–213 ventrals; 142 subcaudals; relative tail length 0.29– 0.30; total length to 135.5 cm ( van Rooijen et al., 2015).

Remarks. Dendrelaphis keiensis definitively occurs on Babar, Tanimbar and the Kei Islands ( van Rooijen et al., 2015). There also exists a morphologically similar population on Ambon that may also represent this species ( How et al., 1996).