Herpetoreas burbrinki Guo, Zhu, Liu, Zhang, Li, Huang & Pyron, 2014

Peng, Lifang, Huang, Song, Burbrink, Frank T., Zhang, Yong, Guo, Peng & Wu, Hailong, 2021, Morphological description of a new specimen of Herpetoreas burbrinki Guo et al 2014 (Serpentes: Colubridae), Zootaxa 5039 (3), pp. 433-439 : 434-437

Herpetoreas burbrinki Guo, Zhu, Liu, Zhang, Li, Huang & Pyron, 2014

Description of female (ANU20210006); Figs 1–3 .

Body elongated and thin, cylindrical; head elongate, rather narrow, distinct from the neck; nostril lateral, round, piercing in middle of divided nasal; eye large, pupil round; tail cylindrical, long and tapering; dorsal scale rows 19-19-17, all distinctly keeled; scales on posterior part of head and temporal region keeled; reduction from 19 to 17 dorsal scale rows occurs at the level of the 3 rd and 4 th dorsal scale rows and between the 105 th and 107 th ventrals; 2 preventrals and ventrals 169; paired subcaudals 94; anal divided. The scale rows reduction formula on the tail:

Rostral broad, approximately 1.5 times as wide as high, curved onto the dorsal rostral surface; nasal rectangular, longer than high; internasals subtriangular, slightly longer than wide, anteriorly narrowed but truncated, with the fore width about 0.5 times as great as the hind width; prefrontals subrectangular, barely longer than internasal, reaching loreal; frontal subpentagonal, 1.8 times as long as wide, flatted front, pointed backwards, two long sides approximately parallel; parietals in contact for a length of 0.9 times the frontal length; supraoculars broadly in contact with prefrontal, with supraocular two-thirds as broad as the frontal; loreals 2/2, small, rectangular, in broad contact with nasal; preocular 1/1; postoculars 3/3, the upper one larger than two lower ones; temporals 2+2 on both sides; supralabials 9/8, the 3 rd to 5 th bordering the orbit, the left 6 th to 8 th occupying the same position as the right 6 th and 7 th; infralabials 10/10, first five contacting anterior chin shields; nostrils lateral, nasals are undivided; two pairs of chin shields. Maxillary teeth are 21 in continuous series, last 15 enlarged.

Morphometric measurements are as follows: SVL: 462 mm; TaL: 184 mm; TL: 646 mm; Tal/TL: 0.285; LsI: 1.6 mm; LsP: 1.7 mm; HW: 9.2 mm; HL: 16.5 mm; HH: 6.1 mm; DE: 5.5 mm; EL: 3.8 mm; EW: 3.8 mm; RH: 1.1 mm; RW: 2.9 mm; MH: 0.9 mm; MW: 1.8 mm.

Coloration in life ( Figs 1–2 ). Dorsal ground color grey-olive green with most scales densely speckled with dark spots, turning into reddish on its posterior portion of the body. Lateral dorsum ornate with an alternating brickred and white stripe on DSR 5-6, and caudal dorsum with five regular black longitudinal stripes. Ventral scales tangerine (the prior part coloration lighter than the posterior part), with a row of well-defined dark spots at their outer border, extending to the tip of the tail.

Dorsal surface of head grey-olive green with irregular dark stripes, turning into blackish-brown on the posterior part of the body. Paler on the snout and sides. Two small, faint off-white spots on the parietals and a faint off-white sagittal line just behind the parietals. Paired, pale ivory cream occipital spots, from the uppermost Po, to the 9 th (left) and 8 th (right) SL bent upwards and distinctly connected with the thin pale brown or canary dorsolateral stripe of the neck (“Y” shaped). SL off-white; each of the first five having a black speckle with brick red rim; in the middle of 6 th having a brick red speckle mixed with small black spots (“blusher”); paired, black brown lateral spots, from the middle Po, to the 7 th to 9 th (left) and 7 th to 8 th (right) SL, extending backwards more than one head length. The head ventrally off-white.

Variation. Where this specimen differs from the holotype ( Guo et al. 2014), features of the holotype follow in brackets. An adult female ANU20210006 (holotype an adult male YBU071128 ); preocular 1/1 (2/1); temporals 2+2/2+2 (3+2/3+2); supralabials 9/8 (8/8); ventrals 169 (172); subcaudals 94 pairs (96) ( Figs 1–2 ) .

Distribution. The new specimen was collected in a broad-leaved evergreen forest (28.7141°N, 96.7820°E, elevation 1938 m a. s. l.) approximately ten kilometers from the type locality ( Guo et al. (2014) speculated that the species might occur in northern Burma and/or extreme eastern India.

Figures

FIGURE 1. General views of the adult female (ANU20210006) of Herpetoreas burbrinki in life. A: Dorsal; B: Ventral.

FIGURE 2. Head of the adult female (ANU20210006) of Herpetoreas burbrinki. A: Dorsal; B: Ventral; C: Left; D: Right. Lo: Loreal; Sp: Supralabials.

FIGURE 3. The habitat of the adult female (ANU20210006) of Herpetoreas burbrinki.