Scientists from the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) have brought exciting news with the invention of a brand new species of water snake called Hypsiscopus Indonesian in Lake Towuti in South Sulawesi. This discovery brings the whole variety of snake species in Sulawesi to 60, enriching the region’s biodiversity.
The snake has a brownish-gray coloration with laterally flattened tails and more rows of scales along the middle of the body. Interestingly, it has more abdominal scales but fewer tail scales in comparison with the others Hypsiscopus species. It also has a novel color pattern in comparison with other species.
H. Indonesian is a freshwater snake referred to as the “flat-tailed water snake”. According to scientists from the Center for Biosystematics and Evolutionary Research of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, BRIN, Amir Hamidy, this group of snakes often inhabits freshwater environments and hunts small fish, tadpoles or crabs.
Physically, they’re relatively small, rarely exceeding 1 meter or 700 millimeters in length, and are found only in Lake Towuti. Their presence indicates the next degree of endemism in comparison with H. matanensis.
“Further research on its population and distribution is needed to assess its conservation status,” Amir said in a written statement issued on Wednesday, January 26.
He explained that of the 4 species of this genus, three occur in Sulawesi, of which two are endemic. There is one H. Indonesianwhich is found exclusively in Lake Towuti, while the opposite one does H. matanensiswhich is present in Lake Matano and several other other regions of Sulawesi.
Amir noted that just about 60 percent of all snakes in Sulawesi are endemic, so the number is way lower than within the Sundaland Islands. However, the extent of endemism amongst Sulawesi snakes is higher.
“There are 127 species of snakes in Sumatra, of which 16 percent are endemic, while in Kalimantan there are 133 species (23 percent endemic) and in Java and Bali 110 species (6.4 percent endemic),” he explained.
Amir then told a story about Den Bosch’s 1985 record of 55 species of snakes in Sulawesi. However, in 2005, the authors of the book “The Snakes of Sulawesi: A Field Guide to the Land Snakes of Sulawesi”, Ruud de Lang and Gernot Vogel, improved this number to 52 species. Over time, seven recent species of snakes have been identified in Sulawesi, bringing the whole variety of snake species there to 59. The latest discoveries bring the species diversity of land snakes in Sulawesi to 60 species.
Amir also shared an interesting story in regards to the discovery H. Indonesian. According to him, the specimens of this snake got here from six specimens collected in 2003 and one specimen collected in 2009, with a reasonably long lifespan of roughly 16 years. Amir added that the identification process was delayed resulting from the limited variety of specimens at the moment.
He added that after 2019, members The Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) then managed to gather fresh specimens from Lake Towuti, which greatly helped validate the identification process. As a result, the invention was published within the journal Treubia Volume 50 Number 1 in 2023.
As additional information, Sulawesi – an island within the Indo-Australian archipelago – is thought for its unique geological history and is a hotbed of biodiversity for a lot of species. The island is home to several ancient lakes that fragmented throughout the Pliocene era, including Lake Matano, Lake Towuti, and Lake Mahalona.
