Aurangabad: A new species of snakes has been discovered in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra and named after Tejas Thackeray, the younger son of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, for his contribution to the find. The species falls in the category commonly called as cat snakes and belong to the genusBoiga, director of the Pune-based Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation Varad Giri told PTI on Thursday. A research paper describing the new species was published in the journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) on Thursday, he said.

"Snakes belonging to this genus are distributed across India, but a few species are endemic to the Western Ghats," he said. The new species was named 'Thackeray's cat snake' (scientific name 'Boiga thackerayi') for researcher Tejas Thackeray for his contribution to the discovery, Giri said. Tejas is the younger son of Uddhav Thackeray. "Tejas Thackeray spotted this species for the first time in 2015 and studied its behavior in detail. He presented these details to the Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation and helped us with further research," Giri said.