Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2019-06-06
Page range: 578–586
Abstract views: 106
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of Opisthotropis from northern Vietnam previously misidentified as the Yellow-spotted Mountain Stream Keelback O. maculosa Stuart & Chuaynkern, 2007 (Squamata: Natricidae)

AG Zoologischer Garten Köln, Riehler Strasse 173, D–50735 Cologne, Germany. Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam. Graduate University of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol / The Museum of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA
Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam National University, 334 Nguyen Trai Road, Hanoi, Vietnam. Central Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, Hanoi National University, 19 Le Thanh Tong, Hanoi, Vietnam Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024
Reptilia Opisthotropis maculosa Opisthotropis haihaensis sp. nov. morphology phylogeny taxonomy

Abstract

The Yellow-spotted Mountain Stream Keelback Opisthotropis maculosa was originally described based on a single male specimen from northeastern Thailand. Recently, based on morphological data, new records of this species were published initially from southern China and subsequently from northern Vietnam. In this study, we provide the first molecular comparisons between the holotype and other populations in China and Vietnam using the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and use an integrative taxonomic approach to show that the population from Vietnam represents a distinct taxon. Opisthotropis haihaensis sp. nov. is characterized by a combination of the following characters: internasal not in contact with loreal; prefrontal not touching supraocular; frontal touching preocular; one preocular; one postocular; one anterior temporal; one posterior temporal; eight supralabials, fourth and fifth in contact with eye; 24 maxillary teeth; anterior pair of chin shields longer than posterior pair; 169 ventrals + 2 preventrals); 79 subcaudals, paired; 15 dorsal scale rows at neck, at midbody and before vent; body and tail scales smooth; chin shields yellow with brownish black mottling; body and tail dorsum dark with each a light spot per scale. Phylogenetically, the new species is supported as the sister taxon to “O. maculosa” from China (but separated by approximately 10% uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence) and is distantly related to O. maculosa sensu stricto from Thailand, warranting a taxonomic revision of the maculosa-like species. According to our results, O. maculosa should be delisted from the herpetofauna of Vietnam, which currently consists of nine Opisthotropis species. Five species, O. cucae, O. daovantieni, O. haihaensis, O. tamdaoensis, and O. voquyi, are endemic to the country.

 

References

  1. 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, 2107–2118.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2000.tb01253.x

    David, P., Pham, C.T., Nguyen, T.Q. & Ziegler, T. (2011) A new species of the genus Opisthotropis Günther, 1872 (Squamata: Natricidae) from the highlands of Kon Tum Province, Vietnam. Zootaxa, 2758 (1), 43–56.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2758.1.3

    Dowling, H.G. (1951) A proposed standard system of counting ventrals in snakes. British Journal of Herpetology, 1, 97–99.

    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

    Guo, P., Liu, Q., Xu Y., Jiang, K., Hou, M., Ding, L., Pyron, R.A. & Burbrink, F.T. (2012) Out of Asia: natricine snakes support the Cenozoic Beringian dispersal hypothesis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 63, 825–833.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.02.021

    Hillis, D.M. & Bull, J.J. (1993) An empirical test of bootstrapping as a method for assessing confidence in phylogenetic analysis. Systematic Biology­, 42, 182–192.

    Kizirian, D., Nguyen, T.Q., Ngo, H.T. & Le, M.D. (2018) Parahelicops, Parahabdophis, Paraphyly: Phylogenetic relationships among certain southeast Asian natricine snakes (Hebius). American Museum Novitates, 3906, 1–7.

    https://doi.org/10.1206/3906.1

    Le, M., Raxworthy, C.J., McCord, W.P. & Mertz, L. (2006) A molecular phylogeny of tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 40, 517–531.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2006.03.003

    Nguyen, S.V., Ho, C.T. & Nguyen, T.Q. (2009) Herpetofauna of Vietnam. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, 768 pp.

    Nguyen, T.V., Nguyen, T.Q., Pham, C.T. & Ziegler, T. (2018) First country record of Opisthotropis maculosa Stuart et Chuaynkern, 2007 from Vietnam. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 25, 74–78.

    Posada, D. & Crandall, K.A. (1998) MODELTEST: testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics, 14, 817–818.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/14.9.817

    Ren, J.-L., Wang, K., Jiang, K., Guo, P. & Li, J.-T. (2017) A new species of the Southeast Asian genus Opisthotropis (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae) from western Hunan, China. Zoological Research, 38, 251–263.

    Ronquist, F., Teslenko, M., van der Mark, P., Ayres, D.L., Darling, A., Höhna, S., Larget, B., Liu, L., Suchard, M.A. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2012) MrBayes 3.2: efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Systematic Biology, 61, 539–542.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sys029

    Simmons, J.E. (2002) Herpetological collecting and collections management. Revised edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Herpetological Circular, 31, 1–153.

    Stuart, B.L. & Chuaynkern, Y. (2007) A new Opisthotropis (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae) from Northeastern Thailand. Current Herpetology, 26, 35–40.

    https://doi.org/10.3105/1345-5834(2007)26[35:ANOSCN]2.0.CO;2

    Swofford, D.L. (2001) PAUP*. Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods). Version 4. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts. [program]

    Teynié, A., Lottier, A., David, P., Nguyen, T.Q. & Vogel, G. (2013) A new species of the genus Opisthotropis Günther, 1872 from northern Laos (Squamata: Natricidae). Zootaxa, 3774 (2), 165–182.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3774.2.4

    Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J., Plewniak, F., Jeanmougin, F. & Higgins, D.G. (1997) The ClustalX windows interface: Flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Research, 25, 4876–4882.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/25.24.4876

    van Schingen, M., Ha, Q.Q., Pham, C.T., Le, T.Q., Nguyen, T.Q., Bonkowski, M. & Ziegler, T. (2016a) Discovery of a new crocodile lizard population in Vietnam: Population trends, future prognoses and identification of key habitats for conservation. Revue Suisse de Zoologie, 132, 241–251.

    van Schingen, M., Le, M.D., Ngo, H.T., Pham, C.T., Ha, Q.Q., Nguyen, T.Q. & Ziegler, T. (2016b) Is there more than one Crocodile Lizard? An integrative taxonomic approach reveals Vietnamese and Chinese Shinisaurus crocodilurus represent separate conservation and taxonomic units. Der Zoologische Garten, 85, 240–260.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.zoolgart.2016.06.001

    Wang, Y.Y., Guo, Q., Liu, Z.Y., Lyu, Z.T., Wang, J., Luo, L., Sun, Y.J. & Zhang, Y.W. (2017) Revisions of two poorly known species of Opisthotropis Günther, 1872 (Squamata: Colubridae: Natricinae) with description of a new species from China. Zootaxa, 4247 (4), 391–412.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4247.4.3

    Yang, J.H., Sung, Y.H. & Chan, B.P.L. (2013) A new species of the genus Opisthotropis Günther, 1872 (Squamata: Colubridae: Natricinae) from Guangdong Province, China. Zootaxa, 3646 (3), 289–296.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3646.3.7

    Yang J.H., Wang Y.Y., Zhang B., Lau M. W.-N. & Chou, W.-H. (2011) Revision of the diagnostic characters of Opisthotropis maculosa Stuart and Chuaynkern, 2007 with notes on its distribution and variation, and a key to the genus Opisthotropis (Squamata: Natricidae). Zootaxa, 2785 (1), 61–68.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2785.1.4

    Ziegler, T., David, P. & Vu, T.N. (2008) A new natricine snake of the genus Opisthotropis from Tam Dao, Vinh Phuc Province, northern Vietnam (Squamata, Colubridae). Zoosystematics and Evolution, 84, 197–203.

    https://doi.org/10.1002/zoos.200800004

    Ziegler, T., David, P., Ziegler, T.N., Pham, C.T., Nguyen, T.Q. & Le, M.D. (2018) Morphological and molecular review of Jacob’s Mountain Stream Keelback Opisthotropis jacobi Angel & Bourret, 1933 (Squamata: Natricidae) with description of a sibling species from northern Vietnam. Zootaxa, 4374 (4), 476–496.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4374.4.2

    Ziegler, T., Ziegler, T.N., Peusquens, J., David, P., Vu, T.N., Pham, C.T., Nguyen, T.Q. & Le M.D. (2017) Expanded morphological definition and molecular phylogenetic position of the Tam Dao mountain stream keelback Opisthotropis tamdaoensis (Squamata: Natricidae) from Vietnam. Revue Suisse de Zoologie, 124, 377–389.