• Herpetologists took 12 years to document Smithophis atemporalis, a predominantly aquatic species
• It’s literally raining reptiles in the Northeast, and the latest to be discovered has a Mizo name that means rain-loving.

BACKGROUND:

• A month after a Russian journal published the discovery of a reddish-brown pit viper in Arunachal Pradesh, the New Zealand-based journal Zootaxa has come out with the discovery of a non-venomous snake in Mizoram.
• The discovery of another non-venomous snake species — the Crying Keelback, in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lepa-Rada district, was published in an international journal about six months ago.
• The new genus and species of the natricine — predominantly aquatic — that took a seven-member team of herpetologists 12 years to document, has been named Smithophis atemporalis after eminent British herpetologist Malcolm Arthur Smith for his immense contribution to Indian herpetology.