REPORT OF Xenochrophis schnurrenbergeri KRAMER, 1977 (SERPENTES: NATRICIDAE) FROM ORISSA, INDIA Pratyush P. Mohapatra, 1,2 Sushil K. Dutta, 2 and Siba Prasad Parida 3 Submitted May 2, 2009. One road killed female specimen of the genus Xenochrophis Günther, 1864 was examined and confirmed as Xe- nochrophis schnurrenbergeri Kramer, 1977. Hence, the southernmost distribution range of the little known species is extended to Orissa, India. Keywords: Xenochrophis schnurrenbergeri, range extension, Orissa, India. INTRODUCTION Malnate (1960) divided the former genus Natrix Laurenti, 1768 into five genera and revalidated the name Fowlea Theobald, 1868 for the species F. piscator , F. punctulata, and F. vittata based on the structure of hemipenes, form of maxillary teeth and position of nos- trils. Again Malnate and Minton (1965) changed the ge- nus Fowlea Theobald, 1868 to Xenochrophis Günther, 1864 and included the species Psammophis cerasogas- ter Cantor, 1839, the type species for Xenochrophis. Vogel and David (2006) worked on morphological vari- ation in the Xenochrophis piscator/Xenochrophis flavi- punctatus complex in Asia and divided the complex into eight taxa. They separated the Andaman population as X. tytleri (Blyth, 1863), which was earlier referred as X. melanzostus (Gravenhorst, 1807) and elevated Xeno- chrophis flavipunctatus schnurrenbergeri Kramer, 1977 from Nepal to species status. Schleich and Kastle (2002) mention 4 species of the genus Xenochrophis in Nepal including the subspecies Xenochrophis flavipunctatus schnurrenbergeri. They delimited the distributional range from X. flavipunctatus flavipunctatus. Whitaker and Captain (2004) reported 7 species of Xenochrophis from India namely, X. cerasogaster (Cantor, 1839), X. flavipunctatus flavipunctatus (Hallowell, 1860), X. me- lanzostus (Gravenhorst, 1807), X. piscator (Schneider, 1799), X. punctulatus (Günther, 1858), X. sanctijohan- nis (Boulenger, 1890), and X. triangularis (Boie, 1827). In 2008 the same authors replaced Xenochrophis melan- zostus by X. tytleri based on Vogel and David (2006) but did not include X. schnurrenbergeri. Hence, this is the second attempt to report the species from India from the southern most range of distribution. MATERIAL AND METHODS One road killed female specimen was collected from Pattamundei of Kendrapara district, Orissa. The snake was rushed by a motorbike (16:00 03/21/2008) while crossing the road. The habitat was a plain agricultural field with patches of Pandanus fascicularis bushes. Scale counts and morphometric data were taken after preser- vation of the specimen in 4 – 5% formaldehyde solution. Ventrals were counted as per Dowling (1951) and the subcaudals were counted excluding the terminal seg- ment. Snout to vent length and tail length were taken in mm scale by using a thread on the mid-dorsal body with- out stretching the animal and other measurements were taken in an Aerospace dial caliper (150 ´ 0.02 mm). Abbreviation used. RMNH-BBSR: Regional Mu- seum of Natural History, Bubhaneshwar, Orissa. 1026-2296/2010/1702-0094 © 2010 Folium Publishing Company Russian Journal of Herpetology Vol. 17, No. 2, 2010, pp. 94 – 96 1 Species Division, WWF-India, 172-B, Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110003, India; E-mail: pratyush.kingcobra@gmail.com 2 P. G. Department of Zoology, North Orissa University, Baripada, Orissa 757003, India; E-mail: sk_dutta@yahoo.com 3 Regional Museum of Natural History, Acharya Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 751005, India; E-mail: spparida@yahoo.co.in