Trimeresurus salazar, Mirza & Bhosale & Phansalkar & Sawant & Gowande & Patel, 2020
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publication ID |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.96.48431 |
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publication LSID |
lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F4D892E1-4D68-4736-B103-F1662B7D344D |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/6C165D3E-D3F2-43CA-A62E-E753E6B7FC22 |
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taxon LSID |
lsid:zoobank.org:act:6C165D3E-D3F2-43CA-A62E-E753E6B7FC22 |
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treatment provided by |
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scientific name |
Trimeresurus salazar |
| status |
sp. nov. |
Trimeresurus salazar sp. nov. Figs 1 View Figure 1 , 2 View Figure 2 , 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 5 View Figure 5 , 7 View Figure 7
Holotype.
BNHS 3554 , adult male, collected from outskirts of Pakke Tiger Reserve, 0.64 nautical miles (1.19 km) north of Seijosa, East Kameng district , Arunachal Pradesh (26.968790N, 93.013984E, elevation 172 m a.s.l, datum WGS84), India by Harshal Bhosale, Pushkar Phansalkar, Mandar Sawant, and Zeeshan Mirza on 1 July 2019
GoogleMapsParatype.
BNHS 3555 , adult female same data as for the holotype but collected on 5 July 2019.
GoogleMapsReferred material.
ZMUC R69255 & ZMUC R69256 , males, from Assam , India purchased by B.W. Westermann.
Etymology.
The specific epithet is a noun in apposition for J.K. Rowling’s fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’s co-founder, Salazar Slytherin. He was a Parselmouth that links him to serpents. Suggested common name: Salazar’s pit viper.
Diagnosis.
A species of the genus Trimeresurus with (1) 1st supralabial fused with nasal; (2) 19-21 moderately keeled dorsal scale rows at midbody; (3) dorsal colouration greenish yellow in both sexes; (4) an orange to reddish stripe extends from the posterior borders of the preocular, running through the lower margin of the eyes to the lateral side of the nape in males; (5) ventrolateral stripe predominantly yellow with a faint orange at the base in males, yellow in females; (6) tail to total length ratio (TaL/TL) 0.18 in males, 0.14 in females; (7) short, bilobed hemipenis reaching 8th caudal scale; (8) 6 palatine, 15 pterygoid and 19 dentary teeth.
Comparison.
The new species is here compared to all species of the genus Trimeresurus for differing and non-overlapping characters: first supralabial fused with nasal (vs separate in T. macrolepis Beddome, 1862, T. trigonocephalus (Latreille, 1801), T. malabaricus (Jerdon, 1854), T. strigatus Gray, 1842, T. gramineus (Shaw, 1802), T. stejnegeri Schmidt, 1925, T. hageni (Lidth de Jeude, 1886), T. phuketensis Sumontha, Kunya, Pauwels, Nitikul & Punnadee, 2011, T. nebularis Vogel, David & Pawels, 2004, T. truongsonensis Orlov, Ryabov, Thanh & H. Cuc, 2004, T. gunaleni Vogel, David & Sidik, 2014, T. sabahi Regenass & Kramer, 1981, T. popeorum , T. yingjiangensis Chen, Zhang, Shi, Tang, Guo, Song & Ding, 2019, T. sichuanensis (Guo & Wang, 2011), T. nebularis Vogel, David & Pauwels, 2004, and T. yunnanensis ); dorsal scale rows 19-21 (vs >23 rows in T. andersoni Theobald, 1868, T. cantori (Blyth, 1846), T. erythrurus , T. gracilis Oshima, 1920, T. gumprechti , T. labialis (Steindachner, 1867), T. purpureomaculatus (Gray, 1832), T. vogeli David, Vidal & Pawels, 2001, T. stejnegeri , and T. arunachalensis ); eye sized in relation to head not large, DEYE 2.33 (DEYE 4.03-4.46 relatively large eyes in T. cardomomensis Malhotra, Thrope, Mrinalini & Staurt, 2011, T. macrops Karmer, 1977, and T. rubeus Malhotra, Thrope, Mrinalini & Staurt, 2011), dorsum green with a yellow tinge bearing a yellowish ventrolateral stripe along the body lacking any dorsal markings (vs dorsum reddish brown to grey, black, or green with dark markings in T. tibetanus Huang, 1982, T. flavomaculatus (Gray, 1842), T. fasciatus (Boulenger, 1896), T. arunachalensis , T. malabaricus , T. strigatus , T. kanburiensis Smith, 1943, T. puniceus (Boie, 1827), T. schultzei Griffin, 1909, T. mutabilis Stoliczka, 1870, T. honsonensis (Grismer, Ngo & Grismer, 2008), T. malcolmi Loveridge, 1938, T. wiroti Trutnau, 1981, T. venustus , Vogel, 1991, T. mcgregori Taylor, 1919, T. sumatranus (Raffles, 1822), T. andersonii , T. labialis , T. andalasensis David, Vogel, Vijaykumar & Vidal, 2006, T. borneensis (Peters, 1872), T. brongersmai Hoge, 1968, T. cantori ); 167-171 ventrals (vs 136-150 in T. brongersmai , 141-149 in T. gracilis , 133-143 in T. macrolepis , 143-158 in T. malabaricus , 138-149 in T. medoensis , and 128-150 in T. strigatus ).
The new species is most similar to T. septentrionalis , T. insularis Kramer, 1977, and T. albolabris in its scalation but differs in bearing an orange to reddish stripe from the lower margin of the eye to the posterior of the posterior border of the mouth in males (vs a white stripe from the posterior border of the nasal to posterior part of the head in T. septentrionalis and T. albolabris ); hemipenis short and bilobed (vs long and deeply forked in T. septentrionalis and T. albolabris ); palatine with six teeth (vs five in T. albolabris , T. insularis , and T. septentrionalis ); pterygoid with 15 teeth (vs 11 in T. septentrionalis , 16 in T. insularis , and 12 in T. albolabris ); 19 dentary teeth (vs 11 in T. septentrionalis , 12 in T. albolabris , and 14 in T. insularis ). A comparison of selected characters is presented in Table 1 View Table 1 .
Description of holotype male BNHS 3554.
The specimen is in a good state of preservation, set in a coil with its head placed out of the coil (Fig. 1a View Figure 1 ). The left hemipenis is everted, and the specimen bears three ventral longitudinal incisions (Fig. 1b View Figure 1 ). The skin of the specimen seems a bit loose, likely an artifact of preservation.
Body long and thin, SVL 415 mm; head triangular and elongate, head length 16.2 mm (HL/SVL 0.04); head width 12.6 mm; (HW/HL 0.77) clearly distinct from neck; distance between nostrils 3.2 mm; distance between preoculars 6 mm; distance between tip of snout and anterior border of eye 6.6 mm; distance between nostril to eye 4.8 mm. Canthus rostralis distinct; four scales between internasal and supraocular. Rostral subtriangular, slightly visible when viewed from above; nasal and first supralabial fused, with only a trace of a suture, sub-pentagonal, wider than high (2.7 mm high, 3.2 mm wide); a pair of subrectangular internasals aligned in a straight manner bordered by six scales on its posterior margin; second supralabial and two preoculars encompass the loreal pit; the lower preocular forms the lower margin of the loreal pit (Fig. 2a, b View Figure 2 ); one elongate and narrow supraocular (0.8 mm wide, 3.9 mm long); cephalic scales (CEP) small, much irregular, subimbricate, smooth; LCS 35, more elongate near the neck; 12 CEP between supraoculars (Fig. 2d View Figure 2 ); occipital scales smooth; four to five rows of scales between the internasals and anterior border of the supraoculars flat and irregular in their shape; the rows posterior to these have a slight dome shaped appearance; temporals smooth and subequal; subocular crescent shaped; 11/11 supralabials; 1st supralabial fused with nasal scale, 2nd as high as the 1st supralabial, nearly of the same width throughout; 3rd supralabial longest among the supralabials, lower preocular, subocular and 4th supralabial; 4th supralabial small, separated from the subocular by a single row of smooth scales; 5th supralabial in contact with temporal; the remaining supralabials slightly decreasing in size posteriorly and in contact with temporal scales; 12/13 infralabials, the first pair in contact with each other; the first three pairs in contact with anterior chin shields; six pairs of chin shields, each pair in contact medially; separated from infalabials by 1-5 scale rows (Fig. 2c View Figure 2 ). Palatine with six teeth; pterygoid with 15 teeth; 19 dentary teeth (Fig. 4 View Figure 4 ).
Body scalation: 21 dorsal scales one head length behind the head; 19 dorsal scales at midbody; 15 dorsal scales one head length anterior to the vent; dorsal scales rhomboid, moderately keeled except for the first row which is smooth; three preventrals; 167 ventral scales; 71 subcaudal scales; paired; anal shield entire. Eye large, with VED/DEL ratio 0.85; tail short; ventrally depressed; Tal 94 mm; TaL/TL 0.18. Tail prehensile. Hemipenis short, bilobed, not deeply forked, extending to the 8th caudal scale.
Colouration in life (Figs 5a, b View Figure 5 , 7 View Figure 7 ): dorsum green with a yellow tinge; ventrum creamy white with the dorsal green colour diffusing into the ventral scales on the ventral scale margins. Head dorsally dark green, which fades to lighter green to yellowish green on the nasal, labials, and preoculars. A reddish orange stripe extends from the posterior borders of the preoculars, running through the lower margin of the eyes to the lateral side of the nape. Dorsal scales yellowish green except for the first dorsal scale row, which is yellowish white and bears a faint orange patch; the yellow and the orange appears as a bicoloured lateral stripe running form the neck to the vent. Tail rusty red dorsally and orange ventrally. Juveniles are brightly coloured, and the lateral stripe on the head is more prominent (Fig. 7 View Figure 7 ).
Colouration in preservative (Figs 1a, b View Figure 1 , 2a-c View Figure 2 ): green on dorsum has turned darker and the yellow has faded to white. In some patches, the green has turned light blue. The orange stripe along the head and along the body is not visible. The tail is reddish brown and has lost all trace of the orange tinge.
Variation: the paratype female BNHS 3555 agrees with the description of the holotype in most aspects except for the following difference: 21 dorsal scales rows at one head length posterior to head and at midbody; 15 dorsal scale rows one head length anterior to vent; 10 CEP; 32 scales in a longitudinal row from internasals to neck; 10/10 supralabials; 13/12 infralabials; 171 ventral scales (+3 preventral scales); 59 paired subcaudal scales; SVL 363mm; TaL 60mm; TaL/TL 0.14. The species is sexually dichromatic; the male bears a reddish orange stripe running from the margin of the eye and subocular through the temporal region, and from the neck to the vent as a lateral stripe, which the female lacks (Fig. 5a, b View Figure 5 ). See Appendix III for images of the paratype. Two male specimens from Assam, ZMUC R69255 bore ventrals 164 (+2 preventrals) and 74 subcaudals, and ZMUC R69256 ventrals 163 (+2 preventrals) and 71 paired subcaudals.
Natural history notes: the type specimens were found during night search between 1800-2200 hours along a road. Both individuals were found coiled on shrubs along the road. A third individual was seen but escaped in the thick undergrowth. Three individuals were seen during night searches in six nights. Other serpent species observed at the locality include Boiga gokool (Gray, 1834), Boiga cyanea ( Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854), and Lycodon jara (Shaw, 1802). For now, the new species is known only from the type locality. The specimens, ZMUC R69255 & ZMUC R69256 were collected from Assam and it is likely that the new species may occur in the adjoining state sharing similar biotope.
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