A new colour morph of Calliophis bibroni (Squamata: Elapidae) and evidence for Müllerian mimicry in Tropical Indian coralsnakes

Raveendran, DK and Deepak, V and Smith, EN and Smart, U (2017) A new colour morph of Calliophis bibroni (Squamata: Elapidae) and evidence for Müllerian mimicry in Tropical Indian coralsnakes. In: Herpetology Notes, 10 . pp. 209-217.

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Abstract

Meristic and molecular data provide evidence for an exceptional multi-chromatic defensive strategy in an Indian coralsnake, Calliophis bibroni from the state of Kerala. We propose a mimicry hypothesis involving a combination of an ontogenetic colour shift at maturity, from initial Müllerian mimicry with a subtropical Indian coralsnake Sinomicrurus macclellandii, to one of two very different adult dorsal colours: 1) an aposematic pattern resembling that of the sympatric tropical Indian coralsnake Calliophis castoe or 2) a cryptic dark brown colouration. To this end, we succinctly juxtapose the rich body of work on mimicry in New World elapids to that of their Old World counterparts in an attempt to address the exciting yet unexplored prospect of investigating mimicry, crypsis and aposematism in Old World coralsnakes.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Herpetology Notes
Publisher:	Societas Europaea Herpetologica
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Societas Europaea Herpetologica
Keywords:	Aposematism; Crypsis; Genetic distance; Indian coralsnakes; Meristics; Mimicry
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2022 11:00
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2022 11:00
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/74779

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