Lushai hills dragon snake

In news- The researchers from Mizoram University have discovered a new species of the Stoliczkia genus of snakes.

Key updates-

•  This is the third species of Stoliczkia from India.
• The team has named it Stoliczkia vanhnuailianai, in honour of Vanhnuailiana, a famous Mizo warrior. 
• The team has given it a common name, ‘Lushai hills dragon snake’ and in the local Mizo language it will be called rulphusin, meaning ‘snake with small scales’.
• The snake is about 50 cm in length, non-venomous, and has a dark brown shade above with a few dorsal scale rows bright yellow in colour. 
• The head scales are uniformly dark brown and have bright pinkish sutures.
• Though some members of the family Xenodermidae exhibit fluorescence under ultraviolet light, this snake did not exhibit any significant sign of fluorescence. 
• Its sister species Stoliczkia khasiensis was found more than a century ago in 1904.
• The new species is known only from a single specimen at a point locality and further studies are needed to know its distributional range.