Achalinus emilyae Ziegler, Nguyen, Pham, Nguyen, Pham, Van Schingen, Nguyen & Le, 2019

Hou, Shao-Bing, Wang, Kai, Guo, Peng, Chen, Jin-Min, Yuan, Zhi-Yong & Che, Jing, 2021, Two new species and a new country record of the genus Achalinus (Reptilia Squamata: Xenodermidae) from China, Zootaxa 4950 (3), pp. 528-546 : 541-542

Achalinus emilyae Ziegler, Nguyen, Pham, Nguyen, Pham, Van Schingen, Nguyen & Le, 2019

( Figs. 8 and 9 )

Chinese Name. We suggest “ Ḵ北ñffi ” (Pinyin: Yue Bei Ji She) as its Chinese common name.

Specimen examined. Single adult female ( KIZ 022248 ), road-killed individual collected by Zhiyong Yuan and Jinmin Chen from Dongzhong (21.719° N, 107.583°E), Fangchenggang County, Guangxi Zhuang A. R., China, on 2 September 2012 ( Fig. 1 ) .

Description. Total length 453 mm (SVL 361 mm, TaL 92 mm, TaL/ToL 20.3%); body slender, cylindrical; head slightly distinct from neck, dorsally covered with large shields; eye small, with pupil vertically subelliptic. Rostral small, triangular, slightly visible from above; frontal pentagonal, slightly broader than long, pointed backwards, much shorter than parietals; parietal long, more than half length of head; nasal divided, nostril in anterior half; one loreal, wider than high, extending from nasal to eye; single supraocular, in contact with loreal, prefrontals, frontal, parietals, and superior anterior temporals; two anterior temporals, only uppermost in contact with eye; two elongated middle temporals, superior one much larger, inferior one in contact with sixth supralabial; three elongate posterior temporals, most superior one largest, separated from each other behind parietals by one small scale; supralabials six, first smallest, third and fourth in contact with loreal; fourth and fifth in contact with eye, sixth longest; mental in arc shape, separated from anterior chin shields, followed by five infralabials; first pair of infralabials in contact with each other; first three infralabials in contact with anterior chin shields; posterior chin shields smaller, laterally in contact with third and fourth infralabials.

Dorsal scales elliptical, keeled from neck region onwards; dorsal scale rows 23–23–23; ventrals 157 (potential preventrals included), rounded laterally; subcaudals 56, unpaired; precloacal entire.

Coloration. In life, the dorsal body surfaces of the snake are greyish brown with a dark greyish brown vertebral stripe along the body. The ethanol-preserved specimen is greyish brown above, venter is greyish cream, with the ventral surface of the tail being somewhat darker, and the gular region somewhat paler. Infralabials and chin shields light greyish brown.

Comments. The Guangxi specimen matches with most of the diagnosis of A. emilyae , including having (1) TaL/ToL 20.3%; (2) suture between internasals distinctly longer than that between the prefrontals; (3) internasal present; (4) loreal present, wider than high, extending from nasal to eye; (5) supralabials 6; (6) infralabials 5; (7) first pair of infralabials in contact with each other; (8) first three infralabials in contact with anterior chin shields; (9) mental separated from anterior chin shields; (10) temporals 2+2, only the superioanterior one in contact with eye; (11) ventrals 157 in female; (12) subcaudals unpaired; (13) dorsal scale rows 23–23–23; (14) maxillary teeth 28; and (15) dorsum iridescent pale yellowish brown with a dark longitudinal vertebral stripe. The only deviation from the diagnosis of the type series is the number of subcaudal scale (65 for Guangxi specimen vs. 63 for the female paratype).

Natural history. The specimen was a road-kill, and its head was found swallowed by a road-killed Bungarus fasciatus ( Fig. 9 ). The nearby habitat consists of secondary forest of broadleaf evergreen forest mixed with shrubs and vines (Provided by Jin-Min Chen, who collected this specimen in the wild). At the type locality, the species is sympatric with Boiga multomaculata (Boie, 1827) , Hypsiscopus plumbea (Boie, 1827) , Pareas margaritophorus (Jan, 1866) , Ptyas dhumnades (Cantor, 1842) and Ptyas multicinctus (Roux, 1907) .

Distribution. Currently A. emilyae is only known from southern China and northern Vietnam. In China, this species is known from a single locality in Guangxi Zhuang A. R. ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distribution of selected species of the genus Achalinus in southern China and Vietnam, including the type locality (indicated by circle) of A. panzhihuaensis sp. nov. in Sichuan (purple), of A. yangdatongi sp. nov. in Yunnan (blue), and A. emilyae in Vietnam and China (black). The black triangle indicates the new locality of A. emilyae in Guangxi, China.

FIGURE 8. Adult female of A. emilyae (KIZ 022248) from Dongzhong, Fangchenggang, Guangxi, China, showing (A) dorsal view, (B) ventral view, (C) dorsal mid-body closeup, (D) ventral mid-body closeup; (E) dorsal head, (F) ventral head, (G) lateral right head view and (H) lateral left head view. Scale bar = 10 mm. Photos by Shaobing Hou.

FIGURE 9. Road-kill Achalinus emilyae (KIZ 022248) and its predator Bungarus fasciatus from Dongzhong, Fangchenggang, Guangxi, China. Both snakes were road-killed during the predation process. Photo by Zhiyong Yuan.