Resurrection of Pareas yunnanensis (Vogt, 1922) with description of a new species of Pareas from Yunnan Province, China (Squamata, Pareidae)
Abstract
Based on molecular and morphological data of four specimens of Pareas Wagler, 1830 collected from the type locality of P. yunnanensis (Vogt, 1922), along with examination of the type specimens of P. yunnanensis, we revalidate this poorly known, secretive species. Furthermore, based on molecular and morphological lines of evidence we also describe a new species of Pareas from Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Morphologically, the new species closely resembles its sister species P. nigriceps Guo & Deng, 2009. However, the new species is divergent from the latter in cytochrome b mtDNA gene sequences, and can be distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of morphological characteristics: single preocular, postocular fused with subocular, loreal not bordering orbit, vertebral scales enlarged, 3–5 rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at the middle of the body, ventral scales 160–171; subcaudals 62–64, dorsal surface of head solid black or reddish-brown, dark nuchal band present, iris brownish-black or reddish-brown.
References
Anonymous (Herpetological Department of Sichuan Biological Research Institute) 1977. Systematic Retrieval of Reptiles in China. Science Press, Beijing.
Bhosale H., Phansalkar P., Sawant M., Gowande G., Patel H. & Mirza Z.A. 2020. A new species of snail-eating snakes of the genus Pareas Wagler, 1830 (Reptilia: Serpentes) from eastern Himalayas, India. European Journal of Taxonomy 729 (1): 54–73. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.729.1191
Boulenger G.A. 1900. Descriptions of new reptiles and batrachians from Borneo. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 69 (2): 182–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1890.tb01716.x
Boulenger G.A. 1905. Descriptions of two new snakes from Upper Burma. Bombay Natural History Society 16: 235–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/03745480509443665
Deepak V., Ruane S. & Gower D.J. 2018. A new subfamily of fossorial colubroid snakes from the Western Ghats of peninsular India. Journal of Natural History 52: 2919–2934. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2018.1557756
Ding L., Chen Z.N., Suwannapoom C., Nguyen T.V., Poyarkov N.A. & Vogel G. 2020. A new species of the Pareas hamptoni complex (Squamata: Serpentes: Pareidae) from the Golden Triangle. Taprobanica 9 (2): 174–193. https://doi.org/10.47605/tapro.v9i2.230
Grossmann W. & Tillack F. 2003. On the taxonomic status of Asthenodipsas tropidonotus (Van Lidth de Jeude, 1923) and Pareas vertebralis (Boulenger, 1900) (Serpentes: Colubridae: Pareatinae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 10 (3): 175–190. https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2003-10-3-175-190
Guo K.J. & Deng X.J. 2009. A new species of Pareas (Serpentes: Colubridae: Pareatinae) from the Gaoligong Mountains, southwestern China. Zootaxa 2008: 53–60. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2008.1.5
Guo Y.H., Wu Y.K., He S.P., Shi H.T. & Zhao E.M. 2011. Systematics and molecular phylogenetics of Asian snail-eating snakes (Pareatidae). Zootaxa 3001 (1): 57–64. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3001.1.4
Guo Y.H., Wang G.L. & Rao D.Q. 2020. Scale microornamentation of five species of Pareas (Serpentes, Pareidae) from China. Zootaxa 4742 (3): 565–572. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4742.3.10
Hauser S. 2017. On the validity of Pareas macularius Theobald, 1868 (Squamata: Pareidae) as a species distinct from Pareas margaritophorus (Jan in Bocourt, 1866). Tropical Natural History 17 (1): 25–52.
Hoso M., Asami T. & Hori M. 2007. Right-handed snakes: convergent evolution of asymmetry for functional specialization. Biology Letters 3: 169–172. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0600
ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) 1999. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 4th Ed. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London. Available from https://www.iczn.org/the-code/the-code-online/ [accessed 8 Sep. 2022].
Kalyaanamoorthy S., Minh B.Q., Wong T.K.F., von Haeseler A. & Jermiin L.S. 2017. ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods 14: 587–589. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4285
Lawson R., Slowinski J.B., Crother B.I. & Burbrink F.T. 2005. Phylogeny of the Colubroidea (Serpentes): new evidence from mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37 (2): 581–601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2005.07.016
Le D.T.T., Tran T.G., Hoang H.D. & Stuart B.L. 2021. A new species of Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae) from southern Vietnam. Vertebrate Zoology 71: 439–451. https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.71.e70438
Li J.N., Liang D., Wang Y.Y., Guo P., Huang S. & Zhang P. 2020. A large-scale systematic framework of Chinese snakes based on a unified multilocus marker system. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 148: 106807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106807
Liu S. & Rao D.Q. 2021. A new species of the genus Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae) from Yunnan, China. ZooKeys 1011: 121–138. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1011.59029
Loredo A.I., Wood P.L., Quah E.S., Anuar S., Greer L., Norhayati A. & Grismer L.L. 2013. Cryptic speciation within Asthenodipsas vertebralis (Boulenger, 1900) (Squamata: Pareatidae), the description of a new species from Peninsular Malaysia, and the resurrection of A. tropidonotus (Lidth de Jude, 1923) from Sumatra: an integrative taxonomic analysis. Zootaxa 3664 (4): 505–524. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3664.4.5
Mell R. 1922. Beiträge zur Fauna Sinica. I. Die vertebraten Südchinas, Feldlisten und Feldnoten der Säuger, Vögel, Reptilien, Batrachier. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 88A (10): 1–134. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13203420 [accessed 12 Jan. 2023].
Mell R. 1931. List of Chinese snakes. Lingnan Science Journal 8 [1929]: 119–219.
Nguyen L.T., Schmidt H.A., von Haeseler A. & Minh B.Q. 2015. IQ-TREE: a fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum-likelihood phylogenies. Molecular Biology and Evolution 32: 268–274. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu300
Pope C.H. 1935. The Reptiles of China. Turtles, Crocodilians, Snakes, Lizards. Natural History of Central Asia Vol. X. The American Museum of Natural History, New York. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.12104
Poyarkov N.A., Nguyen T.V., Pawangkhanant P., Yushchenko P.V., Brakels P., Nguyen L.H., Nguyen H.N., Suwannapoom C., Orlov N. & Vogel G. 2022. An integrative taxonomic revision of slug-eating snakes (Squamata: Pareidae: Pareineae) reveals unprecedented diversity in Indochina. PeerJ 10: e12713. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12713
Rao D.Q. & Yang D.T. 1992. Phylogenetic systematics of Pareatinae (Serpentes) of Southeastern Asia and adjacent islands with relationship between it and the geology changes. Acta Zoologica Sinica 38: 139–150.
Ronquist F., Teslenko M., Van Der Mark P., Ayres D.L., Darling A., Höhna S., Larget B., Liu L., Suchard M.A. & Huelsenbeck J.P. 2012. MrBayes 3.2: efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Systematic Biology 61 (3): 539–542. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sys029
Tamura K., Stecher G. & Kumar S. 2021. MEGA11: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38 (7): 3022–3027. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab120
Thompson J.D., Higgins D.G. & Gibson T.J. 1994. CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research 22: 4673–4680. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/22.22.4673
Uetz P., Freed P., Aguilar R. & Hošek J. 2022. The Reptile Database. Available from http://www.reptile-database.org [accessed 8 Sep. 2022].
Vogel G. 2015. A new montane species of the genus Pareas Wagler, 1830 (Squamata: Pareatidae) from northern Myanmar. Taprobanica 7 (1): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4038/tapro.v7i1.7501
Vogel G., Nguyen T.V., Lalremsanga H.T., Biakzuala L., Hrima V. & Poyarkov N.A. 2020. Taxonomic reassessment of the Pareas margaritophorus-macularius species complex (Squamata, Pareidae). Vertebrate Zoology 70 (4): 547–569. https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ70-4-2020-02
Vogel G., Nguyen T.V., Zaw T. & Poyarkov N.A. 2021. A new species of the Pareas monticola complex (Squamata: Serpentes: Pareidae) from Chin Mountains with additions to the Pareas fauna of Myanmar. Journal of Natural History 54: 2577–2612. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2020.1856953
Vogt T. 1922. Zur Reptilien-und Amphibienfauna Südchinas. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 88A (10): 135–146. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13203515 [accessed 12 Jan. 2023].
Wagler J.G. 1830. Natürliches System der Amphibien, mit vorangehender Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Zoologie. Cotta, München. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.58730
Wallach V., Williams K.L. & Boundy J. 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. Taylor & Francis Group, London.
Wang P., Che J., Liu Q., Li K., Jin J.Q., Jiang K., Shi L. & Guo P. 2020. A revised taxonomy of Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny. ZooKeys 939: 45–64. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.939.49309
Yang D.T. & Rao D.Q. 2008. Amphibia and Reptilia of Yunnan. Yunnan Publishing Group Cor-poration, Yunnan Science and Technology Press, Kunming.
Yang J.H., Yeung H.Y., Huang X.Y. & Yang S.P. 2021. First record of Pareas vindumi Vogel, 2015 (Reptilia: Pareidae) from China with a revision to morphology. Taprobanica 10 (1): 39–46. https://doi.org/10.47605/tapro.v10i1.246
You C.W., Poyarkov N.A. & Lin S.M. 2015. Diversity of the snail-eating snakes Pareas (Serpentes, Pareatidae) from Taiwan. Zoologica Scripta 44 (4): 349–361. https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12111
Zhao E.M. 2006. Snakes of China, Vol. 1. Anhui Science Technology Publishing House, He-fei.
Zhao E.M. & Adler K. 1993. Herpetology of China. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Oxford.
Zhao E.M., Huang M.H., Zong Y., Jiang Y.M., Huang Q.Y., Zhao H., Ma J.F., Zheng J., Huang Z.J., Wei G., Yang D.Q. & Li D.J. 1998. Fauna Sinica Reptilia, Vol. 3: Squamata: Serpentes. Science Press, Beijing.
Copyright (c) 2023 Shuo Liu, Dongru Zhang, Nikolay A. Poyarkov, Mian Hou, Li Wu, Dingqi Rao, Tan Van Nguyen, Gernot Vogel
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Copyright Notices
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are NOT ALLOWED TO post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to taxonomic issues.
