While considerable progress has been made in the taxonomic studies of the genus Lycodon in Asia,questions remain to be clarified regarding the taxonomy of certain groups,particularly those containing species in China....While considerable progress has been made in the taxonomic studies of the genus Lycodon in Asia,questions remain to be clarified regarding the taxonomy of certain groups,particularly those containing species in China.Not only do many regions in China remain overlooked by herpetologists,resulting in the possibility of undiscovered new species,but the surveyed areas also have suspicious records of recognized congeners that require taxonomic confirmations.Combining both morphological and genetic data,we tackle these outstanding issues in the taxonomy of Lycodon in China.In particular,we discover two new species of Lycodon:one from the previously neglected hot-dry valley in the northern Hengduan Mountain Region close to Tibet,and another recluse and cryptic species from the L.fasciatus complex in the downtown park of a major city in southern Sichuan Province.Additionally,we clarify the distribution of L.septentrionalis in China and resurrect and elevate its junior synonym subspecies,Dinodon septentrionale chapaense,as a full,valid species,and we synonymize the recently described L.namdongensis to the resurrected L.chapaensis comb.nov..Lycodon chapaensis comb.nov.thus represents a new national record of reptilian fauna of China.Lastly,based on literature review,we also correct some of the erroneous records of L.fasciatus and L.ruhstrati in China,point out remaining taxonomic issues of the genus for future research,and update the dichotomous key and distribution of the 20 species of Lycodon currently recorded from China.展开更多
基金This research is supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research(STEP)program(2019QZKK0501)Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment(2019HJ2096001006)+4 种基金China's Biodiversity Observation Network(Sino-BON),Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute,CAS(Y4ZK111B01:2017CASSEABRIQG002)the Animal Branch of the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,CAS(Large Research Infrastructure Funding)to J.C.and NSF GRFP 2017216966 to K.WWe thank Mr.Di-Hao Wu for providing locality information of the new speciesMr.Ben-Fu Miao,Mr.Hui-Ming Xu(Yunlong National Nature Reserve),and Mr.Wen-Jie Dong(KIZ)for their assistances in the fieldand Mr.Chao Wu,Mr.Wei-Liang Xie,Mr.Shao-Bing Hou(KIZ),Mr.Jin-Long Ren(CIB)and Mr.Franco Leung Ka Wah(CIB)for providing photos of Lycodon species.
文摘While considerable progress has been made in the taxonomic studies of the genus Lycodon in Asia,questions remain to be clarified regarding the taxonomy of certain groups,particularly those containing species in China.Not only do many regions in China remain overlooked by herpetologists,resulting in the possibility of undiscovered new species,but the surveyed areas also have suspicious records of recognized congeners that require taxonomic confirmations.Combining both morphological and genetic data,we tackle these outstanding issues in the taxonomy of Lycodon in China.In particular,we discover two new species of Lycodon:one from the previously neglected hot-dry valley in the northern Hengduan Mountain Region close to Tibet,and another recluse and cryptic species from the L.fasciatus complex in the downtown park of a major city in southern Sichuan Province.Additionally,we clarify the distribution of L.septentrionalis in China and resurrect and elevate its junior synonym subspecies,Dinodon septentrionale chapaense,as a full,valid species,and we synonymize the recently described L.namdongensis to the resurrected L.chapaensis comb.nov..Lycodon chapaensis comb.nov.thus represents a new national record of reptilian fauna of China.Lastly,based on literature review,we also correct some of the erroneous records of L.fasciatus and L.ruhstrati in China,point out remaining taxonomic issues of the genus for future research,and update the dichotomous key and distribution of the 20 species of Lycodon currently recorded from China.
