Mud Snakes

The Kerala mud snake, Enhydris dussumierii Dum´eril, Bibron & Dum´eril, has long been known only from syntypes
collected in the nineteenth century, but more recent specimens have provided the opportunity for molecular work. Using
Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 2200 base pairs of cytb, 16S, and c-mos, we recovered the Kerala mud snake as the sister
species to the Chinese mud snake, Enhydris chinensis (Chinese–Vietnamese endemic). The DNA results establish the
position of dussumierii and chinensis as separate from the Enhydris clade, and together they form the sister group to most
of the other fanged homalopsids ((Bitia+Cantoria) + (Erpeton+Gerarda+Fordonia) + (Myron+Pseudoferania) +
(Enhydris punctata) + (Homalopsis+Enhydris bocourti) + (Cerberus)). Here we resurrect Ferania Gray for Enhydris
sieboldii Gray, establish a new genus for the E. chinensis clade (bennettii+chinensis), and apply the generic replacement
name Dieurostus Berg to E. dussumierii Dum´eril, Bibron & Dum´eril. A biogeographic scenario is proposed based on the
ecology, distribution and salt tolerance of the species composing a hypothesized (not supported with molecular evidence)
Asian coastal lineage that is distributed from Pakistan’s Indus River delta to temperate coastal China.