A new species of Lycodon Boie, 1826 (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam 

Abstract

We describe a new species of the genus Lycodon based on an adult male specimen from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Lycodon namdongensis sp. nov. is differentiated from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: dorsal scales in 17−17−15 rows, all smooth; supralabials 8; infralabials 10; one large loreal on each side, separated from the eye; cloacal single; ventral scales 218 (plus two preventral scales); subcaudals 85, paired; a total length of 723 mm; tail / total length ratio 0.205; dorsal head pattern whitish grey; dorsal surface of body with 23 narrow greyish cream bands; dorsal surface of tail with 14 cream bands; ventral surface of body mostly cream with a few small dark spots posteriorly; ventral surface of tail dark grey. Based on molecular comparisons, Lycodon namdongensis sp. nov. is recovered as a sister species to L. futsingensis with strong support values from all three analyses. The new species is at least 6.5% genetically divergent from other species within this clade as shown by a fragment of more than 1000 pbs of the mitochondrial cytochrome b. This discovery increases the number of Lycodon species known from Vietnam to 15.

A new species of Lycodon Boie, 1826 (Serpentes, Colubridae) from northern Vietnam

“…MP analysis resulted in five most parsimonious trees having 1662 steps (CI = 0.41, RI = 0.72). Our tree topologies are very similar to those recovered by Guo et al (2015) and Luu et al (2018). The new species was recovered to be the sister species to a clade containing L. multizonatus + L. liuchengchaoi , with strong support in BI (PP = 96), but weak support in MP and ML (BP MP = 56, BP ML = 69) (Fig.…”

“…PCR conditions were 95 °C for 15 minutes to activate the Taq, with 40 cycles of 95 °C for 30 s, 45 °C for 45 s, 72 °C for 60 s, and a final extension at 72 °C for six minutes. The mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was utilised in this study because it has been widely used in previous molecular analyses of Lycodon (e.g., Guo et al 2013, Siler et al 2013), and has been shown to be informative in revealing new species of Lycodon (e.g., Grismer et al 2014, Luu et al 2018, 2019).…”

“…The genus Lycodon Boie, 1827 is one of the most diverse genera of colubrid snakes, with 61 currently recognised species (Uetz et al 2019, Luu et al 2019). Recent phylogenetic studies showed that the genera Dinodon , Dryocalamus and Lepturophis nested within Lycodon and suggested to place them into the genus Lycodon sensu lato (Guo et al 2013; Siler et al 2013; Figueroa et al 2016).…”

“…From Vietnam, fifteen species of Lycodon have been reported to date, comprising L. capucinus (Boie, 1827), L. cardamomensis (Daltry & Wüster, 2002), L. davisonii (Blanford, 1878), L. fasciatus (Anderson, 1879), L. flavozonatus (Pope, 1928), L. futsingensis (Pope, 1928), L. laoensis Günther, 1864, L. meridionalis (Bourret, 1935), L. namdongensis Luu, Ziegler, Ha, Le & Hoang. 2019, L. paucifasciatus Rendahl in Smith, 1943, L. rosozonatus (Hu & Zhao, 1972), L. rufozonatus Cantor, 1842, L. ruhstrati abditus Vogel, David, Pauwels, Sumontha, Norval, Hendrix, Vu & Ziegler, 2009, L. septentrionalis (Günther, 1875), and L. subcinctus Boie, 1827 (Uetz et al 2019, Luu et al 2019).…”

Range extension and extended diagnosis of Lycodon pictus: First country record from China

“…A tissue sample was collected from the holotype of Lycodon pictus (IEBR 4166) then extracted following formalin protocol developed by Friedman &Desalle (2008) using GTE andNeang et al, 2014). From Vietnam, sixteen species of Lycodon have been reported to date, comprising L. capucinus (Boie, 1827), L. cardamomensis (Daltry & Wü ster, 2002), L. davisonii (Blanford, 1878), L. fasciatus (Anderson, 1879), L. fl avozonatus (Pope, 1928), L. futsingensis (Pope, 1928), L. laoensis Gü nther, 1864, L. meridionalis (Bourret, 1935), L. namdongensis Luu, Ziegler, Ha, Le & Hoang, 2019, L. paucifasciatus Rendahl in Smith, 1943, L. pictus Janssen, Pham, Ngo, Le, Nguyen & Ziegler, 2019 (Hu & Zhao, 1972[1975), L. rufozonatus Cantor, 1842, L. ruhstrati abditus Vogel, David, Pauwels, Sumontha, Norval, Hendrix, Vu & Ziegler, 2009, L. septentrionalis (Gü nther, 1875 and L. subcinctus Boie, 1827(Uetz et al, 2020. The last description from Vietnam was that of Lycodon pictus based on a type series collected from Cao Bang Province, northern Vietnam.…”