A new species of New Guinea Worm-Eating Snake (Serpentes, Elapidae, Toxicocalamus Boulenger, 1896) from Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

By

Roberts, Jackson
Iova, Bulisa
Austin, Christopher

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

98

Pages

399--409

Subjects

Australasia , fossorial , Melanesia , Micro-computed tomography , Morphology

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.90520

 

Abstract

We describe a new species of New Guinea Worm-Eating Snake (Elapidae: Toxicocalamus) from a specimen in the reptile collection of the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery. Toxicocalamus longhagen sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from other species of this genus by the presence of paired subcaudals, a preocular scale unfused from the prefrontal scale, a prefrontal distinct from the internasal scale that contacts the supralabials, a single large posterior temporal and two postocular scales. The new taxon is currently known only from one specimen, which was collected from Mt. Hagen Town in Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea in 1967. The new species was originally identified as T. loriae, but the unique head scalation and postfrontal bone morphology revealed through micro-computed tomography scanning easily distinguish the new species from T. loriae sensu stricto. This is the first species of this genus described from Western Highlands Province.