Ahaetulla prasina (Boie, 1827)

Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, Zootaxa 5287 (1), pp. 1-378 : 134-136

Ahaetulla prasina (H. Boie in F. Boie, 1827)— Native.

Coluber nasutus Shaw, 1802: 548 (name preoccupied by Coluber nasutus Lacépède [1789: 100] . Syntypes (2): RMNH.RENA.782 and 47582, by original designation. Type locality: “native … of Java ”, Indonesia.

Oriental Whip Snake

( Figure 16B ; Kranji Woodland)

Singapore records.

Dryinus nasutus (non Lacépède, 1789)— Duméril et al., 1854b: 812.

Dryiophis [sic] prasinus —Peters, 1859: 269.— Jan, 1863: 88.

Tragops pratimus [sic]— Dennys, 1880a: 3.

Tragops prasinus — Blanford, 1881: 215.

Dryophis prasinus —Sclater, 1891a: 52.— Boulenger, 1896: 181.— Flower, 1896: 890 (Tanglin [= TF]).— Hanitsch, 1898: 20.— Flower, 1899: 682.— Hanitsch, 1899: 12.—Ridley, 1899: 209.—Hanitsch, 1908: 44.— Hanitsch, 1912b: 17.— Hanitsch, 1919: 3 (Bukit Timah Road).— de Rooij, 1917: 206.— Harman, 1961: 182.—D.S. Johnson, 1964: 27.

Passerita prasina —Sworder, 1923: 67.—Sworder, 1924a: 20 (Pulau Ubin).— Cross, 2020h: 1, 3, 7 (Adam Park).— Cross, 2020i: 1 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020m: 2, 6 (Adam Park; MacRitchie Forest Reserve [= MR]).— Cross, 2020n: 3, 7 (Adam Park).

Passerita (Dryophis) prasina — Buddle, 1929: 30 (Sembawang Naval Base [= SML]).

Dryophis prasinus prasinus — de Haas, 1950: 585.

Ahaetulla prasina —K. Lim & F. Lim, 1988c: 74 (Botanical Gardens; Singapore Zoo).— Hall, 1988: 89 (Pasir Panjang Hill).—R. Ngim et al., 1988: 91 (Alexandra Park [= AW]).—K. Lim, 1989h: 64 (Jungle Fall Valley [BTNR]; Nee Soon Swamp Forest; Pasir Panjang Hill).—F.L.K. Lim & M.T.- M. Lee, 1989: 67, 111.—K. Lim, 1990a: 8 (Botanic Gardens; King Albert Park; Nature Walk [Sentosa]).—K.K.P. Lim & L.M. Chou, 1990: 54.—Subharaj & K.K.P. Lim, 1991a: (Hill View [Upper Bukit Timah Road]; King Albert Park; Nature Walk [Sentosa]; Pulau Ubin; Telok Blangah Hill Park).—F.L.K. Lim, 1991: 69.—D.S. Johnson, 1992: 37.—K.K.P. Lim & Subharaj, 1992: 7 ( Holland Road; Lower Peirce Forest; Nee Soon Swamp Forest; Old Upper Thomson Road; Ulu Sembawang).—K.K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 1992: 70, 146.—W.K. Tan, 1992: 28.—Wee, 1992: 74 (Lower Peirce Reservoir Park).—E.K. Chua, 1993: 53, 86.—K.K.P. Lim & Subaraj, 1994: 7 (King Albert Park; Pasir Ris Mangroves).—R. Subaraj, 1994: 12 (MacRitchie North Forest; Mandai Range Forest; Mandai Road; Thomson Ridge Trail [TRF]).—L.M. Chou et al., 1994: 105.—L.M. Chou, 1995: 148 (Bukit Timah Nature Reserve).—R. Subaraj et al., 1995: 3 (Jungle Fall Valley [BTNR]; MacRitchie North [MNF]; Singapore Island Country Club).—K. Lim et al., 1995: 14 (Ulu Sembawang Track 1).—K. Lim, 1995: 16 (Jalan Anak Bukit [BTNR]; Mandai Lake Road; Sime Forest [SRF]; Tiup Tiup Path [BTNR]).—R. Subaraj, 1995: 35 (Pulau Ubin).—R. Subaraj, 1995: 101.— Manthey & Grossmann, 1997: 312.—R.C.H. Teo & Rajathurai, 1997: 378 (Bukit Timah [BTNR]; Lower Peirce [LPF]; MacRitchie; Nee Soon [NSSF]; Upper Seletar).—Chan-ard et al., 1999: 30.—K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 2002: 147.— Anonymous, 2003: 92 (Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve).—Fry et al., 2003: 2050.— Lumsden et al., 2004: 821.— N. Baker, 2005: 5.—T.M. Leong, 2005: 42 (MacRitchie Tree Top Trail [SRF]).—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2008: 93, 160.—R. Subaraj, 2008: 110.—E.K. Chua, 2010: 100.— Das, 2010: 260.— Miralles & David, 2010: 455.—L.L. Grismer, 2011a: 169.—P.K.L. Ng et al., 2011: 273.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2012: 93, 160.— Das, 2012a: 20.— Ang et al., 2012: 57 (Hort Park).—L.K. Wang et al., 2012: 188.—M.F.C. Ng, 2014b: 21.—Wallach et al., 2014: 20.—Chan-ard et al., 2015: 217.—E.K. Chua, 2015: 106.—R. Subaraj, 2015: 52, 54, 55 (Project Western Boundary [= MBP]; Singapore Zoo; Stephen Lee Woods [= RPN]; Ulu Sembawang Forest).—S. Subaraj, 2015: 3, 4, 6 (Project Western Boundary [= MBP]; Singapore Zoo; Stephen Lee Woods [= RPN]; Upper Seletar Peninsula [= USNF]).—E.K. Chua et al., 2016: 111.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2016: 181 (Pulau Tekong).—Vogrinc et al., 2016: 472 (Chek Jawa [Pulau Ubin]).— Amber et al., 2017: 98.—Torres-Bonilla et al., 2017: 34.—W. Wong, 2017: 52.— Das, 2018: 27.—Will, 2018a: 9 (Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve).—H.C. Ho et al., 2019: 124, 125 (Alexandra Woodlands; Clementi Forest).—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2019: 282–283.—H.T.W. Tan et al., 2019: 134 (Kent Ridge Park; National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus).—R.C.H. Teo & Thomas, 2019: 160, 180 (Bukit Timah Nature Reserve).— Charlton, 2020: 136.—N. Kim, 2020b: 149 (Neo Tiew Crescent).—N. Kim, 2020c: 151 (Upper Seletar Reservoir Park).—K.K.P. Lim, 2020: 4 (Adam Park; MacRitchie Forest Reserve [= MR]; Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Lalhriatzuali, 2022: 1.

Ahaetulla fasciolata (non Fischer, 1885)— Hall, 1988: 89 (Pasir Panjang Hill).

Ahaetulla prasina prasina — Leviton, 1968a: 83.— David & Vogel, 1996: 62.— Iskandar & Colijn, 2001: 36.— de Lang & Vogel, 2005: 90.— de Lang, 2017: 92.— Leviton et al., 2018: 417.

Dryophiops rubescens (non Gray, 1835)—E.K. Chua, 1993: 86.

Ahaetualla [sic] prasina —B.C. Ng, 2021: 133 (Pang Sua Woodland).

Ahaetualla prasine [sic]—B.C. Ng, 2021: 135 (Pang Sua Woodland).

Remarks. Ahaetulla prasina was first reported from Singapore as A. nasuta by Duméril et al. (1854b) who noted it was collected during the voyage of the Astrolabe. Low (2019) discussed that specimen (MNHN-RA-0.1220) was collected by Hombron and Jacquinot when they visited Singapore on 28 June 1839. Lim et al. (2019) determined that this specimen represents the second oldest vertebrate specimen from Singapore. Peters (1859) next reported A. prasina from Singapore from a specimen at ZMB collected by Jagor. Unlike other species, numerous specimens of A. prasina were collected early on and deposited in various museums like MNHN and ZMB above, MSNM ( Jan 1863), the Raffles Museum ( Dennys 1880a; Blanford 1881), ZSI (Sclater 1891a), and NHMUK ( Boulenger 1896). Since early in history, A. prasina was considered very common ( Flower 1896; Sworder 1923). Although A. prasina went unreported for 32 years ( Table 2 ) between Buddle (1929) and Harman (1961), Cross (2020n) recorded a few specimens in 1944 and 1945, and there are specimens at LKCNHM from 1933 and 1950, at CAS from 1937, and at FMNH from 1958. Unlike some other common species, A. prasina has been reported a great deal from Singapore (see records above), but appears to be uncommon on PT ( Lim et al. 2016).

Occurrence. Widespread. Common.

Singapore conservation status. Least Concern.

Conservation priority. Lowest.

IUCN conservation status. Least Concern [2021].

LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. Singapore (no locality) : BMNH 1880.9 .10.4 (no date) , BMNH 1880.9 .10.13 (no date) , ZRC.2.3652 (no date); Ayer Rajah [= NUS Kent Ridge] : ZRC.2.3646 (06-Feb-1975) , ZRC.2.3660 (27-Dec-1975) ; Botanic Gardens: ZRC.2.7057 (no date), ZRC.2.3533 (Dec-1996) ; Bukit Panjang: ZRC.2.3666 (11-Nov-1922) ; Bukit Timah: ZRC.2.4129 (19-Aug-1905) , ZRC.2.3665 (Nov-1933) ; Greenbank Park: ZRC.2.6086 (Jul-2004) ; H. M. Naval Base [= SNB] : ZRC.2.3657 (Jul-1950) ; Holland Road: ZRC.2.3370 (25-May-1992) ; Island Club Road [ SICC] : ZRC.2.6165 (05-Oct-2005) ; Jalan Lada Hitam: ZRC.2.6955 (02-Jan-2012) ; Jurong Campus [ NTU] : ZRC.2.3661 (14-Mar-1981) ; Kent Ridge [ NUS] : ZRC.2.3647 (07-Apr-1973) , ZRC.2.3651 (31-Mar-1976) , ZRC.2.2256 (Dec-1979) , ZRC.2.6482 (08-Oct-1997) , ZRC.2.5512 (2001), ZRC.2.5853 (26-Aug-2003) , ZRC.2.6498 (14-Sep-2007) ; Kranji: ZRC.2.3653 (19-Dec-1922) ; Mandai Road: ZRC.2.4820 (15-Apr-1993) ; Pasir Panjang Hill: ZRC.2.2514 (24-Oct-1989) ; Pulau Ubin: ZRC.2.4121 (23-Feb-1921) , ZRC.2.4118, ZRC.2.4145 (15-Apr-1921) , ZRC.2.4123, ZRC.2.4143 (30-Sep-1921) , ZRC.2.5809 (May-2003) ; Seletar Reservoir Park [ USRP] : ZRC.2.3296 (21-Jan-1992) .

Additional Singapore museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): AMNH, CAS, FMNH, MCZ, MNHN, NMI, NMW, SAMA, SMNS, ZMB, ZMH, ZMO; Botanic Gardens: CAS, USNM.

Singapore localities. Adam Park—Alexandra Woodlands—Bukit Panjang—Bukit Timah (not specified)—Bukit Timah Nature Reserve—Clementi Forest—Greenbank Park—Hillview—Holland Road—Hort Park—Jalan Lada Hitam—Kent Ridge Park—King Albert Park—Kranji Woodland—Lower Peirce Forest—Lower Peirce Reservoir Park—MacRitchie (not specified)—MacRitchie Reservoir—MacRitchie North Forest— Mandai Bird Park—Mandai Lake Road—Mandai Range Forest—Mandai Road—Nanyang Technological University Jurong Campus—National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus—Nee Soon Swamp Forest—Neo Tiew Crescent—Old Upper Thomson Road—Pang Sua Woodland—Pasir Panjang Hill— Pasir Ris Park Mangroves—Pulau Tekong—Pulau Ubin—Rainforest Park North—Sembcorp Marine Ltd.—Sentosa—Sime Road Forest—Singapore Botanic Gardens—Singapore Island Country Club— Singapore Zoo—Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve—Tyersall Forest—Telok Blangah Hill Park—Thomson Ridge Forest—Ulu Sembawang Forest—Upper Bukit Timah Road—Upper Seletar (not specified)—Upper Seletar North Forest—Upper Seletar Reservoir Park.

Genus Chrysopelea H. Boie in F. Boie, 1826 (2 species)

Chrysopelea H. Boie in F. Boie, 1826: 982 (type species: Coluber ornatus G. Shaw, 1802 , by monotypy; gender feminine).

Figures

FIGURE 16. A) Ahaetulla mycterizans, B) Ahaetulla prasina C) Chrysopelea paradisi, D) Chrysopelea pelias, E) Dendrelaphis caudolineatus, F) Dendrelaphis cyanochloris, G) Dendrelaphis formosus, and H) Dendrelaphis haasi. Photographs by: Alex Figueroa [A–B, E, G–H], Kelvin K.P. Lim [C], Joys Tan [D], and Law Ing Sind [F].