Contia persica, Boulenger, 1893

Rajabizadeh, Mahdi, Nagy, Zoltán T., Adriaens, Dominique, Avci, Aziz, Masroor, Rafaqat, Schmidtler, Josef, Nazarov, Roman, Esmaeili, Hamid Reza & Christiaens, Joachim, 2016, Alpine-Himalayan orogeny drove correlated morphological, molecular, and ecological diversification in the Persian dwarf snake (Squamata: Serpentes: Eirenis persicus), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176, pp. 878-913 : 903

CONTIA PERSICA SMITH, 1943

Holotype

Originally deposited in the collection of the Zoological Survey of India ( ZSI), Calcutta, India, but Smith (1943) stated that it has been lost.

Terra typica

Cherat, Baluchistan [Cherat (33°49′15″N, 71°52′54″E), North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan (locality indicated by star 3 in Fig. 2 )] .

Diagnosis

N = 8; 5♂, 3♀. 184–208 (x = 195.8) ventrals in ♂ and 194–209 (x = 201.3) in ♀; 77–85 (x = 81.0) subcaudals in ♂ and 77 in ♀ (only counted in one specimen because in the rest the tail was damaged); ratio of the tail length over total length 23.90–25.94 (x = 24.81) in ♂ and 24.1 in ♀; 15/15 dorsal scale rows on the anteri- or and mid dorsal body, usually 15 (62.5%), sometimes 13, posterior dorsal scales; usually seven (80%), rarely seven/eight, supralabials; usually eight (80%), rarely seven/nine, infralabials on both sides of the head; posterior chin shields attached; predominantly (62.5%) no loreal scale, sometimes a single loreal scale may exist; eight (33.3%) or ten (66.7%) scales between the last infralabials, nine to 11 scales behind the parietals.

Dorsal background colour light brown, buff, or brownish; in some specimens body without dorsal pattern, but the bases of the anterior dorsal scales are darker than the rest of scales; in the others there are a few dark spots on the anterior dorsum or there are dark dorsal cross bars interrupted on the dorsal midline, becoming wider and tending to fade out toward the posterior dorsal body; a transverse dark marking between the eyes, another one on the third/fourth anterior parietals, and a dark band (about four scales wide) on the nape, usually separated from each other, or con- nected medially; the snout, lateral head, and labials may be uniformly cream or with pale dark blotches on the snout, the upper temporal, below the eye, and adjacent to the supralabials; the nape band’s width shrinks over the lateral neck and are detached over the ventral or preventral scales; the lower side of the head and the body uniformly cream ( Fig. 1D ).

Distribution

Distributed across north-eastern Pakistan, the lower ranges of Hindu kush, and the Himalayan range. This species may possibly extend into eastern Afghanistan (localities indicated by stars 1 to 9 in Fig. 2 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Different morphs of the Eirenis persicus species group: A, persicus morph from Dasht-e Arjan, Fars province, south-western Iran (photo by F. Hidary); B, walteri morph from Dehbakri, Kerman province, south-eastern Iran (photo by R. Nazarov); C, new morph from Sisakht, Yasuj province, central Zagros mountains, Iran (photo by H. Esmaeili); D, persicus morph from Kafir Kot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan (photo by R. Masroor); E, nigrofasciatus morph from Dezful, Khuzestan province, south-western Iran (photo by F. Hidary).

Figure 2. All available distribution records of the Eirenis persicus species group. Circles indicate the E. persicus specimens, with the persicus morph bearing unicoloured dorsal scales; squires indicate specimens from eastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and southern and western Pakistan, having both persicus morph that base of their anterior dorsal scales are darker, and walteri morph; stars indicate specimens referred to Eirenis mcmahoni (Wall, 1911); plus symbols indicate specimens in north-eastern Pakistan, having both persicus morphs that base of their anterior dorsal scales are darker, and with walteri morph; asterisks indicate specimens with the novum pattern; triangles indicate specimens of the nigrofasciatus morph. Circle 29 indicates the type locality of Cyclophis persicus Anderson, 1872; squire 2 indicates the type locality of Pseudocyclophis walteri Boettger, 1888; squire 7 indicates the type locality of Contia zebrina Wall, 1923; triangle 6 indicates the type locality of Contia persica var. nigrofasciata Nikolsky, 1907; star 3 indicates the type locality of Contia angusticeps Boulenger, 1894; plus symbols 2–5 indicate the type series localities of Contia mcmahoni Wall, 1911. For more details, see Appendix 1.