Lycodon meridionalis (Bourret, 1935)

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

Lycodon meridionalis (Bourret, 1935)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: TBU. SL.2016.144 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificNameID: Lycodonmeridionalis; scientificName: Lycodonmeridionalis; class: Reptilia; order: Squamata; family: Colubridae; genus: Lycodon; specificEpithet: meridionalis; scientificNameAuthorship: (Bourret, 1935); Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Son La; county: Van Ho; municipality: Chieng Xuan; locality: near Hua Lat Mountain ; verbatimElevation: 1080 m; verbatimLatitude: 20°46'84''N; verbatimLongitude: 104°49'00''E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: 28 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 Orlov and Ryabov (2004), Hecht et al. (2013), Nguyen et al. (2016) and Nguyen et al. (2018): SVL 810 mm, TaL 227 mm (n = 1); head distinct from neck; internasals not in contact with loreal; nasal divided; loreal 1/1, not touching the eye; preocular 1/1; subocular absent; postoculars 2/2; anterior temporals 2/3, posterior temporals 3/3; supralabials 8/8, third to fifth entering orbit; infralabials 10/10; dorsal scale rows 17-17-15, strongly keeled except 5 outermost rows smooth, outer dorsal scales enlarged; ventrals 250 (+ 2 preventrals); cloacal undivided; subcaudals 104, divided.

Colouration in life: dorsal surface black, with 122 narrow yellow cross-bars on body and 35 on tail, bifurcated on the sides, enclosing dark spots; head dark black with symmetrical light markings, the most conspicuous being the one running from the eye to the margin of the snout and another stretching from the hind margin of the parietals; belly cream; lower surface of tail dark brown (Fig. 4 ).

Distribution

In Vietnam, this species has been reported from Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces in the north, southwards to Thanh Hoa Province ( Nguyen et al. 2009, Ziegler et al. 2014, Nguyen et al. 2018, Nguyen et al. 2016, Nguyen et al. 2018). Elsewhere, the species has been reported from China and Laos ( Nguyen et al. 2009, Ziegler et al. 2014, Nguyen et al. 2016, Nguyen et al. 2018).

Ecology

The voucher specimen was found at 09:10 h on the ground. The surrounding habitat was secondary forest composed of medium and small hardwoods, lianes and shrub. Air temperature was 27-32°C and relative humidity was 65-70%.

Figures

Figure 4. Lycodon meridionalis (TBU SL. 2016. 144, adult female) from Son La Province, Vietnam. Photo: N. B. Sung