A new species of the genus Ovophis Burger in Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1981 (Serpentes, Viperidae) from southern Yunnan, China

By

Liu, Shuo
Hou, Mian
Mo, Mingzhong
Li, Mei
Li, Biao
Luo, Xiong
Rao, Dingqi
Li, Song

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1230

Pages

287--302

Subjects

Cytochrome b gene , Morphology , mountain pitvipers , systematics , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1230.142967

 

Abstract

A new species of Ovophis is described from Yuanyang Guanyinshan Provincial Nature Reserve in southern Yunnan Province, China. The new species can be distinguished from congeneric species by the following combination of characters: ratio of tail length to total length 0.191–0.206, internasals separated by one or two scales, dorsal scales in 22-21-17 rows, ventrals 146–148, subcaudals 57–64, most subcaudals paired and a few unpaired, third supralabial larger than fourth, white spots on dorsal tail continuous. This study further reveals that the species diversity of Ovophis has been seriously underestimated, and there is still a lot of work to be done on the taxonomy of this genus.