Ovophis jenkinsi, Qiu & Wang & Xia & Jiang & Zeng & Wang & Li & Shi, 2024

Qiu, Xian-Chun, Wang, Jin-Ze, Xia, Zu-Yao, Jiang, Zhong-Wen, Zeng, Yan, Wang, Nan, Li, Pi-Peng & Shi, Jing-Song, 2024, A new mountain pitviper of the genus Ovophis Burger in Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1981 (Serpentes, Viperidae) from Yunnan, China, ZooKeys 1203, pp. 173-187 : 173-187

Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov.

Type material.

Holotype. IOZ 002679 , an adult male (Figs 2 , 3 ) from Tongbiguan Township , Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, China (24 ° 36 ′ 33 ″ N, 97 ° 39 ′ 29 ″ E; 1,343 m a. s. l.) (Fig. 4 ). It was collected near the road by Zhong-Wen Jiang and Xian-Chun Qiu.

Paratype. IOZ 002680 and YJ 201801 , adult females from Tongbiguan Township , Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, China (24 ° 35 ′ 04 ″ N, 97 ° 41 ′ 13 ″ E; 1,321 m a. s. l.) collected by Zhong-Wen Jiang and Xian-Chun Qiu in October 2023 and 2018 ; juveniles YJ 201802 and YJ 201803 from the same locality collected by Zhong-Wen Jiang in October 2018 .

Etymology.

The specific epithet of the new species is dedicated to Robert “ Hank ” William Garfield Jenkins AM (August 1947 – September 2023), a herpetologist and former chairman of the CITES Animals Committee from Australia, with a passion for snakes, especially pitvipers, and helped China, along with many Asian countries, complete snake census, conservation, and management projects. We suggest the common name “ Jenkins’ mountain pitviper ” in English and “ yíng jiāng lào tiě tóu shé ” (盈江烙铁头蛇) in Chinese.

Diagnosis.

Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. can be distinguished by the following combination of morphological characters: (1) internasals in contact or separated by one small scale; (2) second supralabial entire and bordering the loreal pit; (3) dorsal scales in 23 (25) – 21 (23, 25) – 19 (17, 21) rows; (4) 134–142 ventrals; (5) 40–52 pairs of subcaudals; (6) third supralabial larger than fourth in all examined specimens of Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov.; (7) deep orange-brown or dark brownish-grey markings on dorsal head surface; (8) background color of dorsal surface deep orange-brown or dark brownish-grey; (9) both sides of dorsum display dark brown trapezoidal patches; (10) scattered small white spots on dorsal surface of tail.

Description of holotype.

Adult male; body stout and robust, medium-sized, tail slender, TL 515.9 mm (SVL 421.0 mm, TAL 94.9 mm, TAL / TL: 0.23); head triangular in dorsal view, moderately distinct from neck, longer than width, HL 26.6 mm, HW 18.6 mm (HW / HL: 0.70). Snout blunt and rounded, rostral trapezoidal, broader than high, RW 4.6 mm, RH 3.5 mm (RW / RH: 1.31; RW / HW: 0.25), upper edge visible from dorsum; eye small, ED 2.7 mm (ED / HL 0.10), pupil vertical; nostril subcircular, located in the middle of nasal; nasal divided into two scales by nostril; two internasals, elliptical, separated anteriorly by a small scale and bordered by the upper edge of rostral, connected posteriorly; loreal single; two preoculars, in contact with eye posteriorly; two postoculars, upper one in contact with the lower edge of supraocular; subocular single and elongate, respectively separated by two small scales from the third, fourth and fifth supralabials; supraocular single, the largest scales on the dorsal surface of head, separated by 7–8 scales; supralabials eight, first and second in contact with nasal, second entire and bordering the loreal pit, third larger than fourth; 11 infralabials on left (seventh and eighth infralabials bipartitioned relative to right), 10 infralabials on right, first pair in broad contact with each other, first to third in contact with chin shields; mental triangular; one pair of chin shields, meeting in midline, the right one slightly larger than the left; dorsal scales in 25–21 – 19 rows, bluntly keeled, except outer row; 134 ventrals, excluding six preventrals; subcaudal scales 49, paired, excluding tail tip; cloacal plate entire.

Coloration in life.

Dorsal head surface black, with deep-orange blotches; a deep orange marking resembling an open pair of surgical scissors exists on the front of neck; a deep-orange stripe exists from the upper postocular to the anterior nape, the stripe demarcated from black dorsal head at top, gradually transitioning to black at bottom, approximately one scale row in width behind orbit of eye, after three scales, approximately two scales rows in width, enlarge to 3–4 scales rows in width on the posterior of head. Lateral head surface black, tiny white and vermilion spots exist on the surface of scales near snout; an irregular stripe extends from subocular to the fifth and sixth infralabials, the outermost ring of vermilion, subtle, second ring of white, obvious; the stripe splits in two at fifth and sixth supralabials, one extending backward through seventh, eighth supralabials and the last two infralabials, the other extending downward through seventh and eighth infralabials (left) and seventh infralabial (right), converging at the outer row of dorsal scales; similar markings exist on the third supralabial and third to fifth infralabials. Background color of ventral head surface deep orange, mixed with irregular white blotches with vermilion edges. Pupil black; iris deep orange mixed with white and black.

Background color of dorsal surface deep orange, with 18 connected or disconnected dark brown patches on both sides of body and three similar spots on anterior section of tail visible from dorsum; dorsal blotches predominantly trapezoidal, approximately 2–6 scales in length, and 4–5 scales rows in width, mottled with a few deep orange tiny spots on most dark brown patches; two clusters of lateral dark brown patches exist under each dorsal dark brown patch, each patch covers 2–3 dorsal scales and separated from ventral scales by 2–3 rows of dorsolateral scales. Posterior section of tail pink, 21 tiny spots exist on the dorsal surface, spots white with brown edges, no more than a scale in size. Mixed cream and tan on ventral surface of anterior tail and body, clean pink on posterior section of tail.

Intraspecific variation.

Morphometric data are summarized in Table 4 . Dorsal head surface of each paratype specimen has different approximately symmetrical markings respectively. Internasals are separated by one scale, and the dorsal background color is dark brownish-grey in paratypes IOZ 002680 and YJ 201801 . Light greyish-brown on background color of dorsal body in juveniles YJ 201802 and YJ 201803 . Third to tenth subcaudals unpaired in YJ 201803 . The patches on dorsal body are mostly rectangular in IOZ 002680 .

Comparisons.

Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. can be distinct from other congeneric species by the following characters (Table 5 ): internasals in contact or separated by one small scale (vs internasals separated by two small scales in O. malhotrae ); second supralabial entire and bordering the loreal pit (vs second supralabial bordering the loreal pit or separated by a loreal in O. makazayazaya , O. tonkinensis , and O. zayuensis ); dorsal scales in 23 (25) – 21 (23, 25) – 19 (17, 21) rows (vs dorsal scales 23 (21) – 23 (21) – 19 in O. monticola , 25 (27, 29) – 23 (21–25) – 19 (21) in O. tonkinensis , 27–23 – 19 in O. malhotrae and 25 (27) – 23–19 (17) in O. zayuensis ); 134–142 ventrals (vs 141–172 ventrals in O. monticola , 145 in O. malhotrae and 160–177 in O. zayuensis ); subcaudal scales in pairs (vs unpaired in O. tonkinensis and O. zayuensis ); 40–52 pairs of subcaudals (vs 17–31 pairs in O. convictus ); the third supralabial being larger than fourth (vs fourth larger than third supralabial in O. makazayazaya and O. tonkinensis ); deep orange-brown or dark brownish-grey markings on dorsal head surface (vs no markings on dorsal head surface in O. convictus and O. tonkinensis ); background color of dorsal surface deep orange-brown or dark brownish-grey (vs yellowish-brown or dark-grey in O. makazayazaya , yellowish-brown in O. monticola and O. tonkinensis , reddish-brown or brown in O. zayuensis ); both sides of dorsum display dark brown trapezoidal patches (vs mostly rectangular patches in O. monticola ); adults HW / HL 0.70–0.79 (vs 0.64–0.65 in O. monticola ); scattered small white spots on dorsal surface of tail (vs continuous small white spots on dorsal surface of tail in O. tonkinensis and O. malhotrae ).

Distribution and ecology.

Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. is currently known only from Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, China. It was found in the tropical montane rainforest at an altitude of around 1,300 m. Overlapping herpetofauna includes Lycodon chapaensis (Angel & Bourret, 1933) , Trimeresurus popeiorum Smith, 1937 , Pseudocalotes jingpo Xu et al., 2024 , and other species ( Xu et al. 2024). The new species reaches activity peak in autumn and is active nocturnally during light rain or high humidity, at temperatures around 15–22 ° C (Fig. 5 ). The type specimens were collected at night in October. When threatened, these snakes inflate their bodies to make themselves appear larger and strike quickly. The specimen IOZ 002680 had released odour from the cloacal scent glands when captured. We are currently unsure of the feeding habit of O. jenkinsi sp. nov. in the wild. They fed on juvenile mice ( Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758 ) in our captivity observations. Therefore, we presume the species prey on small mammals in the wild.

Figures

Figure 2. Holotype of Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. (IOZ 002679) in life.

Figure 3. Head of the holotype of Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. (IOZ 002679) A lateral (right) view B lateral (left) view C dorsal view D ventral view.

Figure 4. Habitat of Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. at the type locality in Tongbiguan Township, Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, China A microhabitat, photographed by Sheng-Chao Shi B microhabitat, photographed by Guo-Wei Mo C, D macrohabitats, photographed by Xiao-Jun Gu.

Figure 5. Ovophis jenkinsi sp. nov. and its microhabitat. Photographed by Zhong-Wen Jiang in Yingjiang, Yunnan.