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P harbours around 71 snake species (Khan, 2006). A large snake fauna would be expected in Pakistan given that it covers a wide geographical area that includes three major zoogeographical regions and three large mountain ranges (Himalayan, Hindu Kush, and Karakoram). However, to date this snake diversity has probably been underestimated (Khan, 2006). Moreover, some of the species may represent species complexes with unclear taxonomy (e.g. genus Platyceps, Spalerosophis). Other species are expected to occur in Pakistan in cases where their known distributions reach close to the borders with neighbouring countries (especially India). A good example are species of the genus Lycodon Boie in Fitzinger, 1826 (wolf snakes). This genus represents about 50 Asian species but only three are currently known from the territory of Pakistan: L. aulicus (Linnaeus, 1758), L. striatus (Shaw, 1802) and L. travancoricus (Beddome, 1870). The first two are distributed in Pakistan from Sindh to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province whereas the third has been recorded only in one locality near Hyderabad, Sindh (Khan, 2006). In this study, we provide the first record of the rare Mackinnon’s Wolf Snake (L. mackinnoni Wall, 1906) from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), north-eastern Pakistan. This species was described by Wall (1906) from a single specimen collected by P. W. Mackinnon from the neighbourhood of Mussoorie, Uttar Pradesh, India (holotype BMNH 1946.1.13.81). Unusually for a Lycodon species the specimen was described as having no loreal scales although there were reservations about this due to the poor condition of specimen’s head. Furthermore it is has been noted for Lycodon that “aberrations such as the union of the loreal scale with the prefrontal  are not unknown” and a subsequent description of L. mackinnoni has included loreal scales (Smith, 1943). We undertook herpetofaunal surveys in the Bagh and Hattian Bala districts of AJK from November 2016 to April 2018. These involved active searching of different microhabitats in the two districts, e.g. in the vicinity of stream and ponds, agricultural fields, forests (pine, moist temperate and subtropical deciduous forest) and habitats near to human settlements. Local people were also questioned and some of our observations were based on low quality photos provided by them. The snakes recorded were identified using the keys in Lanza (1999) and Khan (2006). If possible, nine morphological and thirteen meristic characters, altitude, coordinates and valuable ecological data were recorded. Morphological measurements were made using digital callipers and geographic data by GPS (WGS 84). A single specimen (male) of L. mackinnoni was collected and preserved in 10 % SHORT COMMUNICATION The Herpetological Bulletin 147, 2019: 21-23

Addition to the snake fauna of Pakistan: Mackinnon’s Wolf Snake, Lycodon mackinnoni Wall, 1906