A revised taxonomy of Asia snail-eating snakes Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny

By

Wang, Ping
Che, Jing
Liu, Qin
Li, Ke
Jin, Jieqiong
Jiang, Ke
Shi, Lei
Guo, Peng

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

939

Pages

45--64

Subjects

molecular , Morphology , new species , Snakes , Southeast Asia , systematics

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.939.49309

 

Abstract

The Asian snail-eating snakesPareasis the largest genus of the family Pareidae (formerly Pareatidae), and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. However, potential diversity remains poorly explored due to their highly conserved morphology and incomplete samples. Here, on basis of more extensive sampling, interspecific phylogenetic relationships of the genusPareaswere reconstructed using two mitochondrial fragments (cyt b and ND4) and two nuclear genes (c-mos and Rag1), and multivariate morphometrics conducted for external morphological data. Both Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses consistently showed that the genusPareaswas comprised of two distinct, monophyletic lineages with moderate to low support values. Based on evidences from molecular phylogeny and morphological data, cryptic diversity of this genus was uncovered and two new species were described. In additional, the validity ofP. maculariusis confirmed.