A new species of Achalinus Peters, 1869 (Squamata, Xenodermidae) from Hunan Province, China

By

Ma, Shun
Shi, Shengchao
Xiang, Sunjun
Shu, Fu
Jiang, Jianping

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1166

Pages

315--331

Subjects

Achalinus hunanensis sp. nov , divergence time , Morphology , Phylogeny , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1166.103055

 

Abstract

A new species, Achalinus hunanensissp. nov., is described from middle and western Hunan Province based on the results of molecular systematics and morphological characters. It diverges from known congeners by a significant genetic divergence (p-distance 3.2%–16.9% based on CO1 mitochondrial gene), and it can be distinguished from all known congeners by the following morphological characters: (1) all dorsal scales strongly keeled, 23 rows throughout the body, the outmost one strongly keeled and enlarged; (2) tail relatively short, TaL/TL 0.221 ~ 0.225; (3) maxillary teeth 23; (4) the suture between internasals 2 × as long as that between prefrontals; (5) loreal one, subrectangular, LorH/LorL 0.62 ~ 0.70; (6) supralabials 6, the 4th and 5th touch the eye; (7) the two anterior temporals in contact with eye; (8) ventrals 163–165, subcaudals 69–72, not paired. This raises the number of known species of Achalinus to 24.