Contribution to the taxonomy of the genus Lycodon H.Boie in Fitzinger,1827(Reptilia:Squamata:Colubridae)in China,with description of two new species and resurrection and elevation of Dinodon septentrionale chapaense Angel,Bourret,1933

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.

A New Species of the Genus Protobothrops(Squamata: Viperidae) from Southern Tibet, China and Sikkim, India

A new species of the genus Protobothrops Hoge ＆ Romano-Hoge, 1983, was described from Jilong County, southern Tibet, China, and Chungthang, northern Sikkim, India. It differs from congeners by the following characters： 1） relatively large body size （total length up to 1510 mm）; 2） dorsal scale rows 25-25-19; 3） except for the smooth outermost row, dorsal scales are weakly keeled; 4） relatively high number of ventral （198-216） and subcaudal （65-76 pairs） scales; 5） 7-8 supralabials; 6） 11 to 13 infralabials; 7） dorsal head uniform dark brown, laterally a reddish-brown obscure postocular streak; 8） dorsum of trtmk and tail olive, with distinct black edged red brown transverse bands across the body and tail; and 9） eye from bright brown and reddish brown to mildly brown. The new species was also observed from the Haa Valley in western Bhutan.

Multilocus Phylogeny of Lycodon and the Taxonomic Revision of Oligodon multizonatum

Classification of the Asian snake genera Lycodon and Oligodon has proven challenging. We conducted a molecular phylogenetic analysis to estimate the phylogenetic relationships in the genus of Lycodon and clarify the taxonomic status of Oligodon multizonatum using mitochondrial（cyt b, ND4） and nuclear（c-mos） genes. Phylogenetic trees estimated using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference indicated that O. multizonatum is actually a species of Lycodon. Comparing morphological data from O. multizonatum and its closest relatives also supported this conclusion. Our results imply that a thorough review of the evolutionary relationships in the genus of Lycodon is strong suggested.

Addition of Ptyas nigromarginata (Blyth,1854) (Squamata:Colubridae) to the Snake Fauna of Thailand with Preliminary Remarks on Its Distribution

The first record of Ptyas nigromarginata （Blyth, 1854） from Thailand and a new record from China are reported. Literature and internet sources were searched for previous records of this species to establish its geographic and altitudinal distributions in Asia. The distribution in India was adapted to the new state division of the northern part of the country. The results show that the species almost exclusively occurs in hill evergreen and montane forests of the Himalayan foothills and mountain ranges continuous with it, at altitudes of 1000-2300 m above sea level.

On the Occurrence of Oligodon joynsoni (Smith,1917)(Squamata:Colubridae) in China

On the basis of a different dorsal pattern,and a low number of maxillary teeth,the specimens of Oligodon joynsoni(Smith,1917) from the Nonggang National Nature Reserve,Guangxi,China formerly identified as O. joynsoni by several authors should be referred to the recently described species O. nagao David,Nguyen,Nguyen,Jiang,Chen,Teynié,and Ziegler,2012. Here,we provide the first genuine record of O. joynsoni(Smith,1917) in China based on a male specimen collected from Xishuangbanna,Yunnan,China.

A New Species of Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804(Squamata: Viperidae) from Southwestern China, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar

The pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 is one of the largest groups of Asian snakes, distributed from India to China and Indonesia. Recent surveys in Jiangcheng and Simao, Yunnan Province, China resulted in a new species previously allocated to T. albolabris. Combining morphological and molecular data, we describe it as Trimeresurus guoi sp. nov. The new species morphologically differs from T. albolabris in the yellow green ventral color;an indistinct ventrolateral line;the a bsence of a postocular stripe;the firebrickred iris;a dark red stripe on dorsal tail;hemipenes with relatively weak sparse papillae, reaching 23 rd subcaudal when unextruded. Molecularly, the new species forms a clearly divergent lineage(BPP 1.00/UFB 100). Uncorrected pairwise distances of mitochondrial gene Cyt b between the new species and other known species of the subgenus Trimeresurus range from 0.052(T. albolabris) to 0.071(T. insularis).