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New Records of Snakes (Squamata: Serpentes) from Son La Province, Vietnam

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New Records of Snakes (Squamata: Serpentes) from Son La Province, Vietnam Herpetology Notes, volume 7: 771-777 (2014) (published online on 21 December 2014) New records of snakes (Squamata: Serpentes) from Son La Province, Vietnam Anh Van Pham1,2, Son Lan Hung Nguyen2 and Truong Quang Nguyen3,* Abstract. We report seven new records of snake species from Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam on the basis of a new reptile collection from Copia Nature Reserve (Thuan Chau District) and Son La City, comprising six species of Colubridae (Cyclophiops multicinctus, Gonyosoma frenatum, G. prasinum, Liopeltis frenatus, Oligodon catenatus, and O. chinensis) and one species of Pseudoxenodontidae (Pseudoxenodon macrops). Our findings bring the species number of snakes to 51 in Son La Province. Keywords. Colubridae, Pseudoxenodontidae, distribution, taxonomy, Copia Nature Reserve, Son La City. Introduction Murphy, Voris, Murthy, Traub and Cumberbatch, 2012; Oligodon nagao David, Nguyen, Nguyen, Jiang, In the recent checklist of the herpetofauna of Vietnam, Chen, Teynié and Ziegler, 2012; Oligodon cattienensis Nguyen, Ho and Nguyen (2009) listed 192 species of Vassilieva, Geissler, Galoyan, Poyarkov, Van Devender snakes. Since then one new genus (Colubroelaps Orlov, and Böhme, 2013; and Azemiops kharini Orlov, Ryabov Kharin, Ananjeva, Nguyen and Nguyen, 2009), 13 new & Nguyen, 2013. In addition, nine new country records species and one new subspecies of snakes have been of snakes have reported from the country, comprising described in Vietnam, viz. Calamaria gialaiensis Ziegler, two species of Colubridae, one species of Homalopsidae, Nguyen and Nguyen, 2008; Calamaria abramovi and six species of Elapidae (Vogel et al., 2009; Nguyen Orlov, 2009; Colubroelaps nguyenvansangi Orlov, et al., 2010; Rasmussen et al., 2011; Murphy et al., Kharin, Ananjeva, Nguyen and Nguyen, 2009; Lycodon 2012a). ruhstrati abditus Vogel, David, Pauwels, Sumonth, In Son La Province, Nguyen, Ho and Nguyen (2009) Norval, Hendrix, Vu and Ziegler, 2009; Protobothrops documented a total of 38 species of snakes. Pham et trungkhanhensis Orlov, Ryabov and Nguyen, 2009; al. (2013) recently recorded five species of colubrids Calamaria concolor Orlov, Nguyen, Nguyen, Ananjeva and one species of viper for the first time from Son La and Ho, 2010, Calamaria sangi Nguyen, Koch and Province. In this paper, we report seven new records of Ziegler, 2010, Emydocephalus szczerbaki Dotsenko, snakes for Son La Province based on newly collected 2010; Opisthotropis cucae David, Pham, Nguyen and materials from Copia Nature Reserve (Thuan Chau Ziegler, 2011; Trimeresurus rubeus (Malhotra, Thorpe, District) and Son La City. Mrinalini and Stuart, 2011); Homalopsis mereljcoxi Material and Methods Field surveys were conducted in the Copia Nature Reserve (NR), Thuan Chau District and on the outskirts 1 Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Tay Bac University, Quyet of Son La City, Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam Tam Ward, Son La City, Son La Province, Vietnam. E-mail: (Fig. 1) by Anh Van Pham, Tan Van Nguyen, Ngoc Thi [email protected] Bich Nguyen, Men Thi Nguyen, and Hoang Van Tu 2 Faculty of Biology, Hanoi National University of Education, (hereafter AVP et al.) between June 2013 and August 136 Xuan Thuy Street, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam. 2014. Specimens were collected by hand or snake E-mail: [email protected] 3 Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam hook between 9:00–23:00. After taking photographs, Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet specimens were anaesthetized in a closed vessel with Road, Hanoi, Vietnam. E-mail: [email protected] a piece of cotton wool containing ethyl acetate, fixed in * Corresponding author 85% ethanol and subsequently stored in 70% ethanol. 772 Anh Van Pham et al. Bom Commune, Copia NR, Thuan Chau District, Son La Province (21°23.460’N, 103°37.732’E, elevation 1260 m a.s.l.). Morphological characters. Body cylindrical; head moderately distinct from neck; eye large, pupil round; rostral as broad as high, partly visible from above; internasal not in contact with loreal; prefrontal as long as half of frontal; parietals longer than wide; nasal undivided; loreal 1/1, not contact with orbit; preocular 1/1; postoculars 2/2, bodering anterior temporals; anterior temporal 1/1, posterior temporals 2/2; subpralabials 7/7, fourth and fifth touching the eye, sixth largest; infralabials 6/6, first to fourth bordering chin shields; dorsal scale rows 15–15–15, smooth; ventrals 180; cloacal scale paired; subcaudals 93, paired. Coloration in preservative. Dorsal surface green anteriorly, grey posteriorly, with whitish cross–bars on the posterior half of the body and tail; belly whitish green anteriorly, grey posteriorly (determination after Smith 1943). Ecological notes. The adult female was collected at 20:00 on tree branch, ca. 1.2 m above on the forest floor, near a stream. The surrounding habitat was evergreen secondary forest. Distribution. In Vietnam, this species has been recorded from Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces in the Figure 1. Map showing the survey site (black square) in Son North southwards to Kon Tum and Lam Dong provinces La Province, northwestern Vietnam. (Nguyen et al., 2009). Elsewhere, this species is known from China and Laos (Nguyen et al., 2009). Remarks. The specimen from Son La differs from the description of Smith (1943) in having more ventrals (180 versus 164–177). Specimens were deposited in the collections of the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Tay Bac University (TBU), Son La Province, Vietnam. Abbreviation are as follows: SVL (snout-vent length): from tip of snout to anterior margin of cloaca; TaL (Tail length): from posterior margin of cloaca to tip of tail; a.s.l.: above sea level. Bilateral scale counts were given as left/right. Results Taxonomic accounts Family Colubridae Cyclophiops multicinctus (Roux, 1907) Many-banded Green Snake / Ran nhieu dai (Fig. 2) Specimen examined (n = 1). One adult female TBU PAR.183 (SVL 845 mm, TaL 260 mm) collected by Figure 2. Cyclophiops multicinctus (TBU PAR.183, adult AVP et al., 19 June 2014, near Huoi Pu Village, Chieng female) from Son La Province. New records of snakes from Son La Province, Vietnam 773 Figure 3. Gonyosoma frenatum (TBU PAR.154, adult female) Figure 4. Gonyosoma prasinum (TBU PAR.86, adult female) from Son La Province, Vietnam. from Son La Province, Vietnam. Gonyosoma frenatum (Gray, 1853) The surrounding habitat was evergreen secondary Khasi Rat Snake / Ran soc ma (Fig. 3) forest. Distribution. In Vietnam, this species has been recorded Specimens examined (n = 3). Three specimens from Lao Cai, Lang Son, Vinh Phuc and Quang Binh collected by AVP et al. near Nong Vai Village provinces (Nguyen et al., 2009). This species is also (21°19.953’N, 103°35.283’E, elevation 1470 m a.s.l.), known from China and India (Nguyen et al., 2009). Co Ma Commune, Copia NR, Thuan Chau District, Son La Province: TBU PAR.114 (SVL: 234 mm, TaL: Gonyosoma prasinum (Blyth, 1854) 90 mm), subadult female, 17 August 2013 and TBU Green Bush Rat Snake / Ran soc xanh (Fig. 4) PAR.133 (SVL: 275 mm, TaL: 117 mm), subadult female, 15 September 2013; TBU PAR.154 (SVL: 860 Specimens examined (n = 3). Three specimens mm, TaL: 298+ mm, tail tip lost), adult female, 17 April collected by AVP et al. in Copia NR, Thuan Chau 2014. Distric, Son La Province: TBU PAR.86 (SVL: 613 Morphological characters. Body subcylindrical; mm, TaL: 216 mm), adult female, 25 July 2013, near head distinguished from neck, rather flattened; snout Hua Ty Village, Co Ma Commune (21°20.923’N, elongate; pupil rounded; rostral broader than high, partly 103°34.834’E, elevation 1400 m a.s.l.); TBU PAR.135 visible from above; internasals wider than long, as long (SVL: 676 mm, TaL: 253 mm), adult male, 12 October as prefrontal; prefrontal approximately half length of 2013, near Hua Ty B Village, Chieng Bom Commune frontal, in contact with second to third supralabials; (21°22.952’N, 103°37.986’E, elevation 1370 m a.s.l.), frontal hexagonal; parietals longer than wide; nasal and TBU PAR.182 (SVL: 773 mm, TaL: 267 mm), paired; loreal absent; supralabials 9/9, fourth to sixth adult male, 10 May 2014, near Nong Vai Village, Co touching the eye, eighth largest; infralabials 9/9 or Ma Commune (21°19.510’N, 103°35.387’E, elevation 10/10, first to fifth bordering chin shields; preocular 1/1; 1510 m a.s.l.). postoculars 2/2, bodering anterior temporals; anterior Morphological characters. Body subcylindrical; temporals 2/2, posterior temporals 3/3; dorsal scale head distinguished from neck, rather flattened; snout rows 19–19–15, smooth; ventrals 205–206; cloacal elongate; pupil rounded; rostral broader than high, partly scale paired; subcaudals 133–143, paired. visible from above; internasals as wide as long, not in Coloration in preservative. Dorsal surface green or contact with loreal; prefrontal as long as half length of greenish grey; lateral head with a black stripe, from frontal; frontal pentagonal; parietals longer than wide; nasal across the eye to the neck; chin and belly white nasal paired; loreal 1/1; supralabials 9/9, fourth to sixth (determination after Smith, 1943). entering orbit, eighth largest; infralabials 10/10, first to Ecological notes. The specimens were collected fifth bordering chin shields; preocular 1/1; postoculars between 9:00 and 10:00 while moving across the road. 2/2, bodering anterior temporals; anterior temporals 774 Anh Van Pham et al. Figure 5. Liopeltis frenatus (TBU PAR.109, adult male) from Figure 6. Oligodon catenatus (TBU PAR.100, adult male) Son La Province, Vietnam. from Son La Province, Vietnam. 2/2, posterior temporals 2/3; dorsal scale rows 19–19– rostral distinctly broader than high, partly visible from 15, keeled; ventrals 193–198 in males, 193 in female; above; internasals broader than long, not in contact cloacal scale paired; subcaudals 102–103 in males, 96 with loreal; prefrontal less than half length of frontal; in the female, paired.
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