Djokoiskandarus annulatus, Murphy, 2011

Murphy, John C., 2011, The Nomenclature And Systematics Of Some Australasian Homalopsid Snakes (Squamata: Serpentes: Homalopsidae), Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 59 (2), pp. 229-236 : 233-234

Djokoiskandarus annulatus , new combination

Type Locality. – Prins Hendrik-eiland (Yos Sudarso), New Guinea, Indonesia (about 7º56'S and 138º21'E) .

Distribution. – Southern coastal New Guinea.

Resurrection of Pseudoferrania Ogilby. – Hypsirhina polylepis Fisher, 1886 , was described on the basis of a specimen from the Fly River, Papua New Guinea. Ogilby (1891) described Pseudoferania macleayi from Queensland’s Herbert River, Boulenger (1896) placed macleayi in Hypsirhina and Kinghorn (1929) placed macleayi in the synonymy of polylepis and assigned polylepis to Enhydris . The overall appearance of polylepis suggests it is related to the Southeast Asia Enhydris which has the nasals scales in contact and parietal scales that are entire ( Gyi, 1970). However, using DNA sequence data from three mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene, Alfaro et al. (2008) have clearly shown that polylepis is not part of the Southeast Asian Enhydris , but part of a Australasian clade which includes Myron . Morphological support for this relationship can be found in the enlarged occipital scales and upper labials 2–3 or 2–4 at the loreal. Additionally the weekly keeled scales on the posterior body of polylepis do not occur in any Southeast Asian taxa, but do occur in Myron and Djokoiskandarus .