Pareas hamptoni (Boulenger, 1905)

Ziegler, Thomas, Hendrix, Ralf, Thanh, Vu Ngoc, Vogt, Martina, Forster, Bernhard & Kien, Dang Ngoc, 2007, The diversity of a snake community in a karst forest ecosystem in the central Truong Son, Vietnam, with an identification key, Zootaxa 1493, pp. 1-40 : 14

Pareas hamptoni (Boulenger, 1905) : Hampton's slug snake / Ran ho may hamton

We found a female specimen (VNUH 30.7.'06-1, SVL 352, TaL 109, TL 461 mm) with folded oviducts and oviduct eggs with a maximum diameter of 2.7 mm. The snake was seen at night (about 22:00h) of 30 July 2006, during the dry season, in the U Bo region at an altitude of about 525 m above sea level. The specimen climbed in ca. 1.5 m height in a shrub, about 3 m distant from a small forest stream. Scalation features are as follows: seven supralabials, separated from eye by lower preocular (or subocular) and the single postocular; seven (right) and nine (left) infralabials; one loreal; two preoculars (or one preocular and one subocular); one postocular, that is fused on the left side with the lower preocular; prefrontals touch the eye; two anterior temporals, followed by two posterior temporals; 15 dorsal scale rows at midbody (generally smooth, in some scales with indistinct hints of keels); 185 ventrals; anal entire; 82 divided subcaudals. For the characteristic coloration see Figure 14 . In Vietnam, the species was previously known from several provinces in the north as well as from southern regions (Ziegler 2002, Nguyen et al. 2005). Our recent finding represents the first record for the Quang Binh Province and for Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park in particular.

Figures

FIGURE 14. Hampton's slug snake (Pareas hamptoni) from Phong Nha - Ke Bang (VNUH 30.7. ’ 06 - 1). Photo: Ralf Hendrix