Barnes' Cat Snake

Barnes' cat snake, known in Sinhala as panduru mapila, is a mildly venomous cat snake endemic to Sri Lanka. It is the smallest cat snake in Sri Lanka, growing to a maximum of about 600 mm snout-to-vent length according to one account, and the longest measured was 522 mm. It is distributed through the lowlands and midlands up to about 600 m, with localities including Matale, Kandy, Gampola, Balangoda and the Sinharaja rain forest (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is mainly a forest species but may occasionally be found in human habitats. A nocturnal, arboreal hunter, it feeds mainly on agamid lizards and geckos and spends the day in a tree hole or crevice. It is timid and rarely attempts to bite. The back is reddish-brown with purplish brown blotches, and the head is purplish black with a light grey stripe behind the eye. The species is named for Richard Hawksworth Barnes, who collected the type specimen. Nationally Vulnerable (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).