- Guwahati-based zoologist Jayaditya Purkayastha has discovered a new species of ‘crying’ keelback snake in Lepa-Rada district of Arunachal Pradesh. It was found from a paddy field on a hill slope on the outskirts of Basar town.
- The zoological name of the snake is Hebius lacrima, and discovery has been published in Zootaxa, the New Zealand-based scientific mega-journal for animal taxonomy.
- It has been named so because of a dark spot under its eyes looking like a black tear that interrupts a white stripe running along the upper jaw to the back of its head and beyond
- The discovered snake is an adult male 48.7 cm long.
- The crying keelback had to be compared with 44 species of snakes worldwide under the genus Hebius.
- The crying keelback can be differentiated from all other species of the genus Hebius by the combination of a distinctive broad, white, interrupted stripe along its body; three rows of irregular dark blotches (not vertically aligned) on each side; six cream, elongated spots on its anterior part and a smooth dorsal scale row.
- The snake, preferring to live near streams along paddy fields, was found to feed on small fish, tadpole, frogs and geckos.
- At world level, snakes are represented by 3,709 species. The northeast is home to some 110 species, with Arunachal Pradesh accounting for 55.
