Dendrelaphis vogeli, Jiang & Ren & Guo & Wang & Ding & Li, 2020

Jiang, Ke, Ren, Jin-Long, Guo, Jun-Feng, Wang, Zeng, Ding, Li & Li, Jia-Tang, 2020, A new species of the genus Dendrelaphis (Squamata: Colubridae) from Yunnan Province, China, with discussion of the occurrence of D. cyanochloris (Wall, 1921) in China, Zootaxa 4743 (1), pp. 1-20 : 12

Dendrelaphis vogeli sp. nov. Jiang, Guo, Ren & Li

( Figs. 5–7 )

Holotype: CIB 110716 (field number YN2018425), adult male, collected by Junfeng Guo, Ke Jiang and Zhongxiong Fu from Menglun, Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan, China in May 2018.

Paratypes: CIB 116817 (field number LAB-BN2019010), subadult male, collected from the same locality as holotype in May 2019 ; CIB 116101 (field number BN20190801), adult male, collected from the same locality as the holotype in July 2019 .

Diagnosis. 1) Ground color of body bronze, a black postocular stripe extending onto the neck only; 2) pale and dark ventrolateral stripe absent; 3) relatively indistinct transverse bands on anterior part of lateral body; 4) loreal single; 5) vertebral scales strongly enlarged; 6) dorsal scale rows 15-15-11, all smooth; 7) ventrals 193–197, subcaudals 130–135, paired; 8) SVL/TOL ratio 0.292 –0.301; 9) supralabials 9, 4th through 6th touching the eye; 10) the outermost row of dorsal scales the same color as other dorsal scales; 11) retracted hemipenis extending to the 6–7th subcaudal scales.

Etymology. The specific epithet “ vogeli ” is named after Mr. Gernot Vogel (Heidelberg, Germany), for his excellent contributions to the taxonomy of the genus Dendrelaphis . He and his collaborators published a series of articles to resolve taxonomic problems in this genus and described several new species. We suggest Vogel’s Bronzeback as its English common name, and “Wo Shi Guo Shu She (ÃKḦnjẘ)” as its Chinese common name.

Description of holotype. Body elongate, cylindrical and slender; head oval in dorsal view, depressed, distinct from neck; snout rounded, snout 1.5 times longer than the eye diameter; nostril rounded and small; eye large (ED/ HL=0.214), pupil rounded; tail relatively long (TAL/TOL=0.292), tapering progressively to a point.

Measurements. SVL: 715 mm; TAL: 295 mm; TOL: 1010 mm; other measurements see table 4.

Figures

FIGURE 5. D. vogeli sp. nov. (holotype, CIB 110716) in life, showing dorsolateral view of the body. Photographs by JL Ren.

FIGURE 6. D. vogeli sp. nov. (holotype, CIB 110716) in life, showing head and anterior body. Photographs by JL Ren.

FIGURE 7. Photographs of the preserved specimen of D. vogeli sp. nov. (holotype, CIB 110716), showing (A) dorsal view of whole body, (B) ventral view of whole body, (C) dorsal view of the head, (D) ventral view of the head, (E) lateral view of the head on left side, (F) lateral view of the head on right side, (G) lateral view on part of body, (H) ventral view on part of body, and (I) dorsal view on part of body. Scale bars=5 mm. Photographs by JL Ren.