Systematics of Trimeresurus popeiorum Smith, 1937 with a revised molecular phylogeny of Asian pitvipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 sensu lato

By

Mirza, Zeeshan A
H. T. Lalremsanga, Editorial Office
Bhosale, Harshal
Gowande, Gaurang G
Patel, Harshil
Idiatullina, Sabira S.
Poyarkov, Nikolay A

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023-2-24

Original Publication

Evolutionary systematics

Volume

7

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

91--104

Subjects

Asia , molecular phylogeny , Popeia , subgenus , synonymy , systematics , Viperidae

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Hamburg Centrum für Naturkunde (CeNak) 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.7.97026

 

Abstract

The pit viper snake genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 sensu lato, is a diverse group of nocturnal serpents comprising over 61 species. The genus is morphologically heterogeneous and has been divided into several subgenera. We present an updated phylogeny of Asian pitvipers and propose a revised classification. Additionally, we revise the taxonomy of T. popeiorum Smith, 1937 and propose taxonomic changes with support from molecular and morphological data. We restrict T. popeiorumsensu stricto to northeastern India, Bangladesh, southern China, and northern Myanmar; populations beyond these areas require further assessment. We also synonymize T. yingjiangensisChen et al., 2019 with T. popeiorum based on overlapping morphological characters, molecular data, and distribution. The findings shed new light on the taxonomy of T. popeiorum, warranting the need for assessing the population of T. popeiorum from southeast Asia.