Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: A group of researchers has discovered a new species of racer snake from Tamil Nadu and made a major taxonomic amendment for two widely distributed Indian snake species. The new species is named after late herpetologist Naveen Joseph. The new species, Platyceps josephi, is a nonvenomous colubrid medium sized (maximum total length 951 mm) snake that can be seen in the open grasslands with rocky and scrub habitats. The researchers working at Natural History Museum, London, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Zoological Survey of India, Don Bosco University, Assam, Indian Herpetological Society, Pune, and Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany, found that the banded racer snakes found in the southeastern part of peninsular India are morphologically and genetically distinct