The blue-bellied kukri snake (Oligodon melaneus Wall) has been rediscovered after 112 years in Manas National Park by a team of researchers.
It was last collected in Tindharia, West Bengal, about 267 kilometres west of Manas, in July 1908.
The rediscovery of Oligodon melaneus has been reported 112 years after its original description and documented as the third, and only non-type, specimen for the species, according to the abstract of the Zootaxa journal. It was first discovered in 1909 with two specimens and has not been seen since. Soumabrata Moulick, a nature photographer, captured images of these specimens.
The blue-bellied kukri snake belongs to the Colubridae family of snakes. Frank Wall described it in 1909 based on two specimens from Tindharia, Darjeeling, one in the Bombay Natural History Museum (BNHM) and the other at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London.
