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Issue: Vol. 3498 No. 1: 26 Sep. 2012
Type: Articles
Published: 2012-09-26
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3498.1.3
Page range: 45–62
Abstract views: 73
PDF downloaded: 1

A new species of the genus Oligodon Fitzinger, 1826 (Squamata: Colubridae) from northern Vietnam, southern China and central Laos

Reptiles & Amphibiens, UMR 7205 OSEB, Département Systématique et Évolution, CP 30, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Road, Hanoi, Vietnam Present address: Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne, Zülpicher Strasse 47b, D-50674 Cologne, Germany
Vietnam National Museum of Nature, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Road, Hanoi, Vietnam
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution and Yunnan Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Domestic Animals, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China
Management Bureau of Nonggang National Nature Reserve, Longzhou 532400, Guangxi A. R., China
Société d’Histoire Naturelle Alcide d’Orbigny, 57, rue de Gergovie, 63170 Aubière, France
Cologne Zoo, Riehler Str. 173, D-50735 Köln, Germany
Reptilia Squamata Colubridae Indochinese Peninsula China Oligodon nagao sp. nov. taxonomy

Abstract

A new species of the genus Oligodon Fitzinger, 1826, Oligodon nagao sp. nov., is described on the basis of five specimensoriginating from Lang Son and Cao Bang provinces in northern Vietnam, Guangxi Autonomous Region in southernPeople’s Republic of China, and from Khammouane Province in central Laos PDR. This species differs from other speciesof the region by the combination of 15 or 17 dorsal scale rows at midbody, unforked hemipenes, not spinose but withpapillae, entire cloacal plate, a high number of ventrals, a rather short tail and dorsal pattern made of numerous dark,butterfly-shaped blotches. On the basis of the morphology of its hemipenes, Oligodon nagao sp. nov. belongs to the groupof Oligodon cinereus. This new species is compared with other species of the Indochinese Peninsula and China with 15or 17 dorsal scale rows, especially Oligodon joynsoni (Smith, 1917). An updated list of the Oligodon species of this region is provided.

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