David J. Gower, Surya Narayanan, V. Deepa,  Muhammed Anvar Y and  Sandeep Das

Zootaxa | November 15, 2023

The shieldtail snake Rhinophis fergusonianus was previously known only from the holotype specimen collected approximately 130 years ago from an imprecise Indian locality (Cardamom Hills). New paper reports the rediscovery of this species from four localities, from low-elevation hills on both sides of the Palghat Gap in the southern part of the Western Ghats of peninsular India. The paper documents new specimens of R. fergusonianus and provide a reassessment of the systematics of the species based on external morphology and DNA-sequence data.