Opisthotropis jacobi, also known commonly as the Chapa mountain keelback, Jacob's mountain stream keelback, and Jacob's stream snake, is a species of snake in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The species is native to Vietnam and China. www.reptile-database.org.
Etymology The specific name, jacobi, is in honor of German entomologist Arnold F. V. Jacobi.Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Opisthotropis jacobi, p. 132).
Geographic range O. jacobi is found in extreme northern Vietnam and in adjacent Yunnan Province, China.
Habitat The preferred natural habitats of O. jacobi are forest and streams, at altitudes of .
Description O. jacobi may attain a total length (including tail) of . Dorsally, it is uniformly shiny black. Ventrally, it is also shiny black but with light-edged ventrals and subcaudals. The dorsal scales are smooth, and arranged in 15 rows throughout the length of the body.Smith MA (1943). The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (Opisthotropis jacobi, pp. 333–334).
Diet O. jacobi preys upon earthworms, freshwater shrimp, fishes, and frogs and their tadpoles.
Reproduction O. jacobi is oviparous.
References
Further reading Angel F, Bourret R (1933). "Sur une petite collection de serpents du Tonkin. Descriptions d'espèces nouvelles ". Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France 58: 129–140. (Opisthotropis jacobi, new species, p. 130). (in French). Nguyen SV, Ho CT, Nguyen TQ (2009). Herpetofauna of Vietnam. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Edition Chimaira / Serpents Tale. 768 pp. . Wang K, Lyu Z, Wang J, Qi S, Che J (2009). "The updated checklist and zoogeographic division of the reptilian fauna of Yunnan Province, China". Biodiversity Science 30 (4): 21326, 1–31. Ziegler T, David P, Ziegler TN, Pham TC, Nguyen TQ, Le MD (2018). "Morphological and molecular review of Jacob's Mountain Stream Keelback Opisthotropis jacobi Angel & Bourret, 1933 (Squamata: Natricidae) with description of a sibling species from northern Vietnam". Zootaxa 4374 (4): 476–496.