A new species of Xylophis Beddome, 1878 (Serpentes: Pareidae) from the southern Western Ghats of India

Vertebrate Zoology

article

Surya Narayanan¹  Pratyush P. Mohapatra²  Amirtha Balan³  Sandeep Das⁴  David J. Gower⁶ 

[1] Suri Sehgal Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment;Zoological Survey of India;Unaffiliated;St. Joseph’s College;Kerala Forest Research Institute;The Natural History Museum

关键词: Hemipenis;    Kanyakumari;    molecular phylogeny;    snakes;    taxonomy;    Xylophiinae;   

DOI  :  10.3897/vz.71.e63986

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Pensoft

【 摘 要 】

We reassess the taxonomy of the Indian endemic snake Xylophis captaini and describe a new species of Xylophis based on a type series of three specimens from the southernmost part of mainland India. Xylophis deepaki sp. nov. is most similar phenotypically to X. captaini, with which it was previously confused. The new species differs from X. captaini by having a broader, more regular and ventrally extensive off-white collar, more ventral scales (117–125 versus 102–113), and by lack of flounces on the body and proximal lobes of the hemipenis. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial 16S DNA sequences strongly indicates that the new species is most closely related to X. captaini, differing from it by an uncorrected pairwise genetic distance of 4.2%. A revised key to the species of Xylophis is provided.

【 授权许可】

CC BY