Pareas xuelinensis, Liu & Rao, 2021

Liu, Shuo & Rao, Dingqi, 2021, A new species of the genus Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae) from Yunnan, China, ZooKeys 1011, pp. 121-138 : 121

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. Figs 2 , 3 , 6A

Type material.

Holotype. KIZ XL1, adult male, Xuelin Township, Lancang County, Pu’er City, Yunnan Province, China, 23°2'38"N, 99°32'35"E; 1840 m elevation, collected on 13 July 2019 by Shuo Liu.

Paratypes. KIZ XL2, adult male and KIZ XL3, adult female, the same collection data as the holotype.

Diagnosis.

Single preocular; postocular fused with subocular; loreal not bordering orbit; prefrontal bordering orbit; fourth or fifth infralabial fused with second chin-shield; three chin-shield pairs; dorsal scales in 15 rows throughout; vertebral scales not enlarged; scales not keeled at the anterior part of the body, three rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at the middle of the body, five rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at the posterior of body; seven supralabials; seven or eight infralabials; cloaca undivided; ventral scales 182-188; subcaudals 87-93, paired.

Description of holotype.

Male, SVL 403 mm, TL 132 mm, TL/total length 0.25; body elongated; head distinct from neck; snout wide and blunt, projecting beyond lower jaw; body laterally compressed, vertebral ridge poorly developed. Rostral approximately as wide as high, almost invisible from above; nasals undivided; internasals elongated, much wider than long; prefrontals triangular, wider than long, bordering orbits; frontal shield-shaped, longer than wide; parietals large, longer than wide, median suture longer than frontal; single loreal, separated from eyes; single preocular; one relatively small supraocular, longer than wide; subocular and postocular fused into one thin elongated crescent-shaped scale; temporals 2+2+2 on both sides; seven supralabials on both sides, separating from eyes; seven infralabials on both sides, anterior-most in contact with its opposite between mental and anterior chin-shields, first four in contact with anterior chin-shields; fourth fused with second chin-shield; three chin-shields pairs, the first pair and the third pair triangle and almost equal size, the second pair elongate; ventral scales 188; cloaca undivided; subcaudals 89, paired; dorsal scales in 15 rows throughout, vertebral scales not enlarged, scales not keeled at anterior of body, three rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at middle of body, five rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at posterior of body; seven maxillary teeth on left side and six maxillary teeth on right side; hemi-penis in situ extending to the 19th subcaudal.

Colouration in life.

Dorsal surface of head and body reddish-yellow with many black tiny spots on each scale; a thin black discontinuous postorbital stripe extending from postocular to neck, which is connected with its fellow on the opposite side by a thick black line which curves forward so as to almost touch the parietals; two thick black discontinuous stripes on neck followed the black curves forward line; many irregular longitudinal black stripes on the sides of body and tail, the stripes on different sides not connected to each other on the vertebrals; belly and ventral surface of head and tail yellow with sparse small black spots; iris reddish-yellow, pupil black.

Colouration in preservative.

The reddish-yellow dorsal surface of the head and body faded to yellowish-white; the yellow belly and ventral surface of head and tail faded to pale white; the iris changed to greyish-black from reddish-yellow and the pupil changed from black to white.

Variations.

Morphometric and meristic data for the type series are provided in Table 3 . The paratype KIZ XL2 has 2+3+2 temporals on the left side and 2+2+3 temporals on the right side. The paratype KIZ XL3 has eight infralabials on both sides, first five being in contact with anterior chin-shields, fifth fused with second chin-shield.

Etymology.

The specific epithet Pareas xuelinensis refers to Xuelin Township, the type locality of the new species.

Distribution.

This species is currently known only from the type locality Xuelin Township, Lancang County, Pu’er City, Yunnan Province, China. It is expected to be found in Myanmar.

Habitat.

Both the holotype and paratypes were found on the bushes beside a small road at night, surrounded by forest and farmland, with no river or stream nearby.

Comparison.

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. andersonii Boulenger, P. atayal You, Poyarkov & Lin P. iwasakii (Maki), P. komaii (Maki), P. macularius Theobald, P. nigriceps Guo & Deng and P. stanleyi (Boulenger) by 0-5 rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled (vs. 5-13 rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled); from P. boulengeri (Angel), P. margaritophorus (Jan), P. monticola (Cantor) and P. vindumi Vogel by three rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at middle of body, five rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at posterior of body (vs. all dorsal scales smooth); from P. carinatus , P. menglaensis and P. nuchalis (Boulenger) by subocular and postocular fused into one thin elongated crescent-shaped scale (vs. two or three distinct narrow suboculars); from P. chinensis (Barbour) and P. modestus Theobald by more ventral scales (182-188 vs. 136-176); and from P. formosensis (Van Denburgh) and P. kaduri Bhosale, Phansalkar, Sawant, Gowande, Patel and Mirza by vertebral scales not enlarged (vs. vertebral scales enlarged).

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. geminatus by vertebral scales not enlarged (vs. vertebral scales enlarged), three rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at middle of body (vs. five rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled at middle of body), fourth or fifth infralabial fused with the second chin-shield (vs. infralabials not fused with chin-shield), temporals 2+2+2 or 2+3+3 (vs. 1+2+1 or 1+1+1) and no black spot on each side of head (vs. having two black spots on each side of head).

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. hamptoni (Boulenger) by vertebral scales not enlarged (vs. vertebral scales enlarged), temporals 2+2 or 2+3 (vs. 1+2) and less ventral scales (182-188 vs. 202).

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. mengziensis by vertebral scales not enlarged (vs. vertebral scales enlarged), 0-5 rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled (vs. 3-9 rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled), having more ventral scales (182-188 vs. 167-173), more subcaudals (87-93 vs. 54-61) and the dorsal surface of head and body reddish-yellow (vs. the dorsal surface of head and body solid black).

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. niger by having more ventral scales (182-188 vs. 154-172), more subcaudals (87-93 vs. 55-66) and the dorsal surface of head and body reddish-yellow (vs. the dorsal surface of head and body solid black).

Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. yunnanensis by the loreal separating from the eye (vs. the point of the large loreal touching the eye), vertebral scales not enlarged (vs. vertebral scales enlarged), and 0-5 rows of mid-dorsal scales keeled (vs. six rows of dorsal scales keeled).

Figures

Figure 2. The type specimens of Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. in preservative.

Figure 3. Holotype (KIZ XL 1) of Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. A dorsal view of the head B lateral view of the head C ventral view of the head D dorsal view of the anterior of body E dorsal view of the middle of body F dorsal view of the posterior of body.

Figure 6. Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. in life (A) and the habitat of Pareas xuelinensis sp. nov. at the type locality (B).