A new species of Plagiopholis Boulenger, 1893 (Serpentes, Pseudoxenodontidae) from Guangdong, China

By

Qi, Shuo
Song, Han-Ming
Yang, Hao-Cong
Xu, Yuhao
Fang, Rui-Jian
Su, Jun-Rong
Liu, Zhi-Fa
Gong, Yue-Ning
Li, Fang-Hua
Lyu, Chun-He
Wang, Bing-Yang
Wang, Ying-Yong

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-11-17

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

101

Series / Issue

Issue: 4

Pages

2171--2180

Subjects

Morphology , Mountain Snakes , Nanling Mountains , Plagiopholis maculosa sp. nov. , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.172706

 

Abstract

<br> The genus<br> Plagiopholis<br> Boulenger, 1893 is a poorly studied genus from the Oriental realm, currently comprising six recognized species. We herein describe a new species of the genus,<br> Plagiopholis maculosa<br> sp. nov.<br> from Guangdong Province, China. A morphological examination combined with two mitochondrial gene fragments (CO1 and cyt<br> b<br> ), was used to test its distinctiveness within<br> Plagiopholis<br> . Morphologically, the new species differs from other congeners by the following diagnostic characteristics: no loreal; temporals 2+2; maxillary teeth 17; 104 ventrals, excluding two preventrals; 24 pairs of subcaudals, excluding the tail tip; presence of a large inverted “V”-shaped nuchal blotch; and a series of distinctive irregular blotches on the dorsum. The phylogenetic analyses shows that the new species exhibits pronounced genetic divergence from all recognized congeners (12.73%–15.88% in CO1, 16.17%–17.54% in cyt<br> b<br> ). This discovery increases the number of valid species in the genus<br> Plagiopholis<br> to seven. Moreover, the extensive sampling gaps across its distribution suggest that additional cryptic species may remain to be discovered.<br>