Plate XXXV (a) of Coluber russelius and XXXVIII (b) of Simotes arnensis from Russell (1796). Plate XXXVIII (b) is the iconotype for the species. See Suppl. maetrials 1, 2 for unedited illustrations.

Oligodon churahensis sp. nov. holotype female NCBS NRC-AA-019 (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view. Scale bars: 10 mm.

Oligodon churahensis sp. nov. holotype female NCBS NRC-AA-019, view of the head, (a) dorsal, (b) ventral, (c) lateral right, (d) lateral left.

Micro CT scan images of the skull, (a–c) Oligodon churahensis sp. nov. holotype female NCBS NRC-AA-019; (d–f) Oligodon arnensis NCBS NRC-AA-020 showing dorsal view (a, d), lateral view (b, e) and ventral view (c, f).

Hemipenis of Oligodon churahensis sp. nov. paratype male BNHS 3657 (a) sulcal view, (b) asulcal view. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Oligodon churahensis sp. nov. holotype female NCBS NRC-AA-019 in life (a); a general view of the habitat at the type locality (b), Photos by Virender Kumar.

Maximum Likelihood phylogeny of selected species of the genus Oligodon showing relationships based on partial fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Tree generated through bootstrap replicates of 1000 through an ultrafast tree search option. Numbers at nodes represent ML bootstrap support values. Species bearing ‘*’ were generated in the present study.