Boiga guangxiensis Wen, 1998

Pham, Anh Van, Ziegler, Thomas & Nguyen, Truong Quang, 2020, New records and an updated checklist of snakes from Son La Province, Vietnam, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 52779-52779 : 52779

Boiga guangxiensis Wen, 1998

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: TBU. SL.2016.128 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificNameID: Boigaguangxiensis; scientificName: Boigaguangxiensis; class: Reptilia; order: Squamata; family: Colubridae; genus: Boiga; specificEpithet: guangxiensis; scientificNameAuthorship: Wen, 1998; Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Son La; county: Van Ho; municipality: Chieng Xuan; locality: near Kho Hong Village ; verbatimElevation: 1090 m; verbatimLatitude: 21°43'18''N; verbatimLongitude: 104°40'26''E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: 26 June 2016; eventRemarks: collected by A.V. Pham and N.B. Sung; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Reptilia; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Morphological characters of the voucher specimen from Son La Province agreed well with the descriptions of Das (2010) and Ziegler et al. (2010): SVL 1395 mm, tail tip lost, TaL 161 mm (n = 1); head distinct from neck; eye large, pupil round; rostral broader than high; internasal not in contact with loreal; prefrontal longer than half of frontal; frontal pentagonal; parietals longer than wide; nasal divided; loreal 1/1, not in contact with orbit; preocular 1/1; postoculars 2/2, bordering anterior temporals; anterior temporals 2/2, posterior temporals 3/3; supralabials 8/9, third to fifth touching the eye, seventh largest; infralabials 12/12, first to third bordering chin shields; dorsal scale rows 23-21-15, smooth; ventrals 262; cloacal scale undivided; subcaudals 55+, paired.

Colouration in life: dorsal surface grey, with dark spots on the anterior body; dorsolateral side light brown on anterior body; belly whitish anteriorly, grey posteriorly (Fig. 3 ).

Distribution

In Vietnam, this species has been recorded from Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces in the north, southwards to Kon Tum and Lam Dong provinces ( Nguyen et al. 2009). Elsewhere, this species is known from China and Laos ( Nguyen et al. 2009).

Ecology

The voucher specimen was collected at 20:50 h on a tree branch, approximately 1.0 m above the ground. The surrounding habitat was disturbed evergreen karst forest of medium hardwood and shrub. Air temperature was 25-30°C and relative humidity was 70-75%.

Figures

Figure 3. Boiga guangxiensis (TBU SL. 2016. 128, adult female) from Son La Province, Vietnam. Photo: A. V. Pham