Lingnan Reed Snake

description

Description of holotype. Male. Rostral wider than high (height 1.8 mm, width 2.2 mm), portion visible from above about equal to prefrontal suture; prefrontal shorter than frontal, not entering orbit, and touching first two supralabials; frontal hexagonal, about 2.2 times maximum width of supraocular; paraparietal surrounded by six shields and scales; a single preocular present, higher than postocular; postocular one, higher than wide, not as high as eye diameter; eye diameter 1.4 mm, larger than eye-mouth distance 0.8 mm; distance from anterior corner of eye to nostril 1.9 mm and to the tip of snout 3.1 mm; pupil rounded; supralabials 4 / 4 (left / right, hereafter), second and third entering orbit, fourth longest, third about 0.9 times of second in length, first shorter than third and as wide as second; mental semicircular to triangular, not touching anterior chin shields; infralabials 5 / 5, first three touching anterior chin shields; first pair of chin shields meeting in midline, second pair touching anteriorly and separated posteriorly by first gular scales; three gulars in midline between second chin shields and first ventrals; dorsal scales in 13 rows throughout body, reducin

A new species of Calamaria (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China

diagnosis

Diagnosis. Calamaria arcana sp. nov. is assigned to the genus Calamaria by its molecular phylogenetic position and the following morphological characters: dorsal scales in 13 rows throughout body, possessing elongate, cylindrical bodies, along with internasals and prefrontals fused, four supralabials and five infralabials (Inger and Marx 1965; Ziegler et al. 2008). Calamaria arcana sp. nov. could be distinguished from all other species of Calamaria by the combination of the following characters: (1) ten modified maxillary teeth; (2) four supralabials, second and third supralabials entering orbit; (3) preocular present; (4) mental not touching anterior chin shields; (5) six scales and shields surrounding the paraparietal; (6) 170 ventral scales; (7) 22 paired subcaudals; (8) tail not gradually tapering, abruptly tapering at the tip; (9) dorsal scales reduced to five rows above last subcaudal at tail; (10) dorsum of body and tail brownish; (11) dark collar on nuchal region absent; (12) two outermost dorsal scale rows light yellow with upper margins partly dark pigmented; (13) ventral scales immaculate, without dark outermost corners and pigmentation anteriorly; and (14) absence of di

A new species of Calamaria (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China

distribution

Natural history, distribution and conservation status. The holotype was found active on a cloudy morning along a trail in tall shrubland and secondary forest. Calamaria arcana sp. nov. is currently only known from a single specimen from its type locality, Mt. Dadongshan, Nanling National Nature Reserve, Guangdong Province, China (Fig. 7). It can be expected that the new species should be distributed across adjacent mountain areas, but in view of the uncertainty of its extent of occurrence, and little information on its ecology and threats, we recommend the new species be listed as Data Deficient (DD) according the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categories and Criteria (IUCN 2022).

A new species of Calamaria (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China

etymology

Etymology. The species epithet " Calamaria arcana " is the nominative form the Latin adjective " arcanus " meaning " hidden ", " secret " and is given in feminine form to match the female genitive declension of the genus name Calamaria. It refers to the fact that this species is difficult to find with only a single specimen discovered during our long term survey in southern China. For common name we suggested as " Lingnan reed snake " in English and " Ling Nan Liang Tou She (岭南两头蛇) " in Chinese, referring to the Lingnan (岭南, means ' South of the Nanling Mountains') region where the new species is found. Lingnan is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains, covering the modern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, as well as northern Vietnam.

A new species of Calamaria (Squamata: Colubridae) from Guangdong Province, southern China