Abstract
A new species of the genus Dendrelaphis is described from Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan, China, based on molecular and morphological data. The new species can be differentiated from other congeners by the following combination of characters: 1) ground color of body bronze, a black postocular stripe extending onto the neck only; 2) pale and dark ventrolateral stripe absent; 3) relatively indistinct transverse bands on the anterior part of lateral body; 4) loreal single; 5) vertebral scales strongly enlarged; 6) dorsal scale rows 15-15-11, all smooth; 7) ventrals 193–197, subcaudals 130–135, paired; 8) SVL/TOL ratio 0.292–0.301; 9) supralabials 9, 4th through 6th touching the eye; 10) the outermost row of dorsal scales the same color as other dorsal scales; 11) retracted hemipenis extending to the 6–7th subcaudal scales. According to molecular and morphological data, D. ngansonensis likely belongs to the D. cyanochloris complex. We further discussed D. cyanochloris complex from Tibet, Yunnan and Hainan, China. A key to Chinese species of Dendrelaphis is provided.
References
Baker, N. (2017) Montane record of Blue Bronzeback Dendrelaphis cyanochloris from Fraser’s Hill, Peninsular Malaysia. Southeast Asia Vertebrate Records, 2017, 62–63.
Bourret, R. (1935) Notes herpétologiques sur l’ Indochine francaise. XI. Sur quelques serpents recoltés en 1934. Bulletin general de l’Instruction Publique, 1934/1935 (9 Mai), 289–296.
Bourret, R. (1936) Les serpents de l’Indochine. II. Henri Basuyau, Toulouse, 505 pp.
Burbrink, F.T., Lawson, R. & Slowinski, J.B. (2000) Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the polytypic North American rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta): a critique of the subspecies concept. Evolution, 54 (6), 2107–2118.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2000.tb01253.x
Cai, B., Wang, Y.Z., Chen, Y.Y. & Li, J.T. (2015) A revised taxonomy for Chinese reptiles. Biodiversity Science, 23 (3), 365–382. [in Chinese]
https://doi.org/10.17520/biods.2015037
Chettri, B. & Bhupathy, S. (2007) Reptile fauna of Sikkim with emphasis to the Teesta Valley. Journal of Hill Research, 20 (1), 1–6.
Das, I. (2010) A Field Guide to the Reptiles of South-east Asia. New Holland Publisher, London, 376 pp.
Dowling, H.G. (1951). A proposed standard system of counting ventral in snakes. Journal of Herpetology, 1 (5), 97–99.
Dowling, H.G. & Savage, J.M. (1960) A guide to the snake hemipenis: a survey of basic structure and systematic characteristics. Zoologica, 45 (2), 17–29.
Figueroa, A., McKelvy, A.D., Grismer, L.L., Bell, C.D. & Lailvaux, S.P. (2016) A species-level phylogeny of extant snakes with description of a new colubrid subfamily and genus. PloS one, 11 (9), e0161070.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161070
Gmelin, J.F. (1789) Caroli a Linné Systema Naturae. 1 (3). G.E. Beer, Leipzig, pp. 1033–1516. [484 pp.]
Goldberg, S.R., Bursey, C.R. & Grismer, L.L. (2014). Dendrelaphis cyanochloris (Wall’s bronzeback) endoparasite. Herpetological Review, 45 (2), 337.
Goldberg, S.R. & Grismer, L.L. (2014). Dendrelaphis cyanochloris (Wall’s bronzeback) reproduction. Herpetological Review, 45 (2), 337.
Lanfear, R., Frandsen, P.B., Wright, A.M., Senfeld, T. & Calcott, B. (2017) PartitionFinder 2: New methods for selecting partitioned models of evolution for molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34 (3), 772–773.
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msw260
Larsson, A. (2014) AliView: a fast and lightweight alignment viewer and editor for large datasets. 30 (22), 3276–3278.
https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu531
Lazell, J. (2002) The herpetofauna of Shek Kwu Chau, South Sea, with description of two new colubrid snakes. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society, 25, 1–81.
Li, P.P., Zhao, E.M. & Dong, B.J. (2010) Amphibians and Reptiles of Tibet. Science Press, Beijing, 251 pp. [in Chinese]
Nicodemo, P. & Bain, R.H. (2007) Geographic distribution, Serpentes, Dendrelaphis ngansonensis. Herpetological Review, 38 (3), 355.
Pope, C.H. (1935) The reptiles of China. Turtles, Crocodilians, Snakes, Lizards. Natural History of Central Asia. Vol. X. The American Museum of Natural History, New York, 604 pp.
Pyron, R.A., Burbrink, F.T. & Wiens, J.J. (2013) A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 13 (93), 1–53.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-93
Ronquist, F. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2003) MrBayes 3: Bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics, 19 (12), 1572–1574.
https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btg180
Schmidt, K.P. (1927a) The reptiles of Hainan. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 54, 395–465.
Schmidt, K.P. (1927b) Notes on Chinese reptiles. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 54, 467–551.
Shi, H.T., Zhao, E.M. & Wang, L.J. (2011) Herpetofauna of Hainan. Science Press, Beijing, 285 pp. [in Chinese]
Stamatakis, A. (2014) RAxML version 8: a tool for phylogenetic analysis and post-analysis of large phylogenies. Bioinformatics, 30 (9), 1312–1313.
https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu033
Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. & Kumar, S. (2013) MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 6.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 30 (12), 2725–2729.
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197
Uetz, P., Freed, P. & Hošek, J. (2019) The Reptile Database, http://www.reptile-database.org, accessed (accessed 01 July 2020)
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. (2008a) Contribution to a review of the Dendrelaphis pictus complex (Serpentes: Colubridae)—1. Description of a sympatric species. Amphibia-Reptilia, 29, 101–115.
https://doi.org/10.1163/156853808783431514
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. (2008b) A new species of Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Java, Indonesia. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 56 (1), 189–197.
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. (2008c) An investigation into the taxonomy of Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin, 1803): revalidation of Dipsas schokari (Kuhl, 1820) (Serpentes, Colubridae). Contributions to Zoology, 77 (1), 33–43.
https://doi.org/10.1163/18759866-07701005
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. (2009) A multivariate investigation into the population systematics of Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin, 1803) and Dendrelaphis schokari (Kuhl, 1820): revalidation of Dendrophis chairecacos Boie, 1827 (Serpentes: Colubridae). The Herpetological Journal, 19, 193–200.
https://doi.org/10.1163/18759866-07701005
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. (2012) A revision of the taxonomy of Dendrelaphis caudolineatus (Gray, 1834) (Serpentes: Colubridae). Zootaxa, 3272 (1), 1–25.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3272.1.1
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. (2016) On the status of three nominal species in the synonymy of Dendrelaphis calligaster (Günther, 1867) (Serpentes: Colubridae). Zootaxa, 4093 (2), 293–300.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4093.2.10
van Rooijen, J. & Vogel, G. & Somaweera, R. (2015) A revised taxonomy of the Australo-Papuan species of the colubrid genus Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae). Salamandre, 51 (1), 33–56.
Vidal, N. & Hedges, S.B. (2002) Higher-level relationships of snakes inferred from four nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Comptes Rendus Biologies, 325 (9), 977–985.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1631-0691(02)01510-X
Vogel, G., Hauser, S. & van Rooijen J. (2012) A new species of Dendrelaphis Boulenger, 1890 (Squamata: Colubridae) from Thailand and Myanmar. Zootaxa, 3392 (1), 35–46.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3392.1.2
Vogel, G. & van Rooijen, J. (2007) A new species of Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Southeast Asia. Zootaxa, 1394 (1), 25–45.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1394.1.2
Vogel, G. & van Rooijen, J. (2008) Contribution to a review of the Dendrelaphis pictus complex (Serpentes: Colubridae)—2. the eastern forms. Herpetozoa, 21 (1/2), 3–29.
https://doi.org/10.1163/156853808783431514
Vogel, G. & van Rooijen, J. (2011a) Contributions to a review of the Dendrelaphis pictus (Gmelin, 1789) complex (Serpentes: Colubridae)—3. the Indian forms, with the description of a new species from the Western Ghats. Journal of Herpetology, 45, 100–110.
https://doi.org/10.1670/09-035.1
Vogel, G. & van Rooijen, J. (2011b) Description of a new species of the genus Dendrelaphis Boulenger, 1890 from Myanmar (Squamata: Serpentes: Colubridae). Bonn Zoological Bulletin, 60 (1), 17–24.
Vogel, G. & van Rooijen, J. (2011c) A new species of Dendrelaphis (Serpentes: Colubridae) from the Western Ghats, India. Taprobanica, 3 (2), 77–85.
https://doi.org/10.4038/tapro.v3i2.3963
Wall, F. (1921) Remarks on the Indian species of Dendrophis and Dendrelaphis. Records of the Indian Museum, 22, 151–162.
https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.1472
Wickramasinghe, L.J.M. (2016) A new canopy-dwelling species of Dendrelaphis (Squamata: Colubridae) from Sinjaraja, World Heritage Site, Sri Lanka. Zootaxa, 4162 (3), 504–518.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4162.3.5
Yang, D.T. & Rao, D.Q. (2008) Amphibia and Reptilia of Yunnan. Yunnan Science and Technology Press, Kunming, 411 pp. [in Chinese]
Zhang, F.J. (1984) Comparative studies and phylogenetic discussions on hemipenial morphology of the Chinese Colubrinae. Acta Herpetologica Sinica, 3 (3), 23–44. [in Chinese]
Zhao, E.M., Huang, M.H. & Zong, Y. (1998) Fauna Sinica: Reptilia. Vol.3. Squamata, Serpentes. Science Press, Beijing, 522 pp. [in Chinese]
Ziegler, T. & Vogel, G. (1999) On the knowledge and specific status of Dendrelaphis ngansonensis (Bourret, 1935) (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae). Russian Journal of Herpetology, 6 (3), 199–208.