Karyological studies on six species of Indian snakes (Colubridae: Reptilia).

Detailed chromosomal analyses have been carried on six species of snakes, viz. Ahaetulla nasutus, Chrysopelea ornata, Dendrelaphis ahaetulla, Xenochrophis piscator, Enhydris enhydris and Acrochordus granulatus. On the basis of these studies, evidence is presented to show that inversions, and in some instances centric fissions and translocations, have played an important role in bringing about structural repatterning in this group, and that the subfamily Acrochordinae is the most primitive, so far known cytologically, of all the subdivisions of the family Colubridae.