Lycodon cathaya WANG, QI, LYU, ZENG & WANG, 2020
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Lycodon cathaya?
Lycodon cathaya
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Huaping wolf snake Chinese: 花坪白环蛇 |
| Synonym | Lycodon cathaya WANG, QI, LYU, ZENG & WANG 2020 |
| Distribution | China (Guangxi: Huaping Nature Reserve) Type locality: Huaping Nature Reserve (25.62521N, 109.91376E (DD); ca 1000 m a.s.l.), Longsheng County, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. SYS r001542, adult male, collected on 20 July 2016 by Jian Wang. Paratypes. SYS r001630, adult male, collected on 2 September 2016 by Jian Wang from Huaping Nature Reserve (25.62667N, 109.91351E (DD); ca 850 m a.s.l.). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Lycodon cathaya sp. nov. can be differentiated from its congeners by the combination of the following morphological characters: (1) dorsal scales in 17–17–15 rows, smooth throughout; (2) supralabials eight, third to fifth in contact with eye, infralabials 9; (3) ventral scales 199–200 (plus two preventral scales), subcaudals 78; (4) loreal single, elongated, in contact with eye or not, not in contact with internasals; (5) a single preocular not in contact with frontal, supraocular in contact with prefrontal, two postoculars; (6) maxillary teeth 10 (4+2+2+2); (7) two anterior temporals, three posterior temporals; (8) precloacal plate entire; (9) ground color from head to tail brownish black, with 31–35 dusty rose bands on body trunk, 13–16 on tail; (10) bands in 1–2 vertebral scales broad in minimum width; (11) bands separate ground color into brownish black ellipse patches, similar arrangement in a row along the top of body and tail; (12) elliptical patches in 3–6 scales of the vertebral row in maximum width; (13) ventral surface of body with a wide brownish black strip, margined with a pair of continuous narrow greyish white ventrolateral lines. |
| Comment | Lycodon cathaya is a sister taxon to the clade composed of L. futsingensis and L. namdongensis (with low statistical support). |
| Etymology | The specific name cathaya is a noun referring to the monotypic botanic genus Cathaya Chun & Kuang, 1958. The single species C. argyrophylla Chun & Kuang, 1958 is an endangered relict plant, and was firstly discovered from Huaping Nature Reserve by the investigation team of Sun Yat-sen University. In memory of the predecessors and their contributions on the taxonomy of Chinese flora and fauna, Wang et al. dedicate this species to the plant genus and its describers. |
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