Restricted to submontane forests and plantations of the Central Highlands, including Pussellawa, Gampola, Hatton, Knuckles, Balangoda, Pundaluoya, Ramboda, Kotagala, Namunukula, Mousakanda, Gammaduwa, and Kotmale, up to about 1,200 m (3,900 ft) of elevation.

The neck is indistinct and the body is slender with cylindrical, short tail.

The dorsal side is crimson brown with a black vertebral line, hence given the name.

Laterally there are a series of black spots in a line and the neck region has a dark brown marking.

[4] It is a nocturnal and terrestrial snake that lives in damp soil, silted-up drains, beneath heaps of decaying leaves, and in similar places where there are earthworms, its primary prey.