First record of Achalinus zugorum Miller, Davis, Luong, Do, Pham, Ziegler, Lee, De Queiroz, Reynolds & Nguyen, 2020 from China (Serpentes, Xenodermidae), with updated diagnosis of this species

By

Liu, Shuo
Wang, Jishan
Hou, Mian
Wang, Mo
Rao, Dingqi

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-8-22

Original Publication

Biodiversity data journal

Volume

13

Pages

1--12

Subjects

COI , Distribution , Morphology , odd-scaled snake , Wenshan Prefecture

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers [2013]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e161176

 

Abstract

The enigmatic odd-scaled snake Achalinus zugorum Miller, Davis, Luong, Do, Pham, Ziegler, Lee, De Queiroz, Reynolds &amp; Nguyen, 2020, was described, based on only one male specimen from Ha Giang Province, northern Vietnam. To date, no other specimen was reported, except for the holotype and this species was considered to be endemic to Vietnam.<br> Based on one specimen collected from Malipo County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, we provide the first record of Achalinus zugorum from China. The specimen from China agrees well with the original morphological description of the species and has a minor genetic distance of 2.9% in the COI gene with the type specimen of this species. This study reports the second specimen and the first female specimen of this species. We also provide an updated diagnosis of this species combined with the morphological data of the newly-collected specimen.