A New Species of Plateau Pit Viper (Reptilia: Serpentes: Gloydius) from the Upper Lancang (=Mekong) Valley in the Hengduan Mountain Region, Tibet, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Kai Wang ◽  
Jinlong Ren ◽  
Wenjie Dong ◽  
Ke Jiang ◽  
Jingsong Shi ◽  
...  
Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4544 (4) ◽  
pp. 505
Author(s):  
KAI WANG ◽  
KE JIANG ◽  
JINLONG REN ◽  
DAHU ZOU ◽  
JIAWEI WU ◽  
...  

Despite being recognized as ecologically and biogeographically important, the biodiversity of the Hengduan Mountain Region, particularly along the upper Mekong River, remains poorly understood. Here we describe a new species of Mountain Dragon of the genus Japalura sensu lato Gray, 1853 from the headwater region of the Mekong River in Chamdo, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The species is recognized as a member of the Japalura flaviceps Barbour & Dunn 1919 complex, and it can be distinguished readily from all congeners by a suite of morphological characteristics, including its dwarf appearance (small body size and disproportionally short tails and short hind limbs), smooth or weakly keeled ventral scales, feebly developed vertebral crests in males, and by the absence of distinct gular spots in males and females. In addition to the description of the new species, we also report morphological variations and range extensions of two recently described congeners along the same river, namely J. iadina and J. vela. We discuss the distribution patterns of the genus in the Hengduan Mountain Region and the urgent conservation priorities for protecting Japalura species along the Mekong River. According to our best available data, we provided IUCN assessments of the three species and propos to list them as nationally protected under the Chinese Wildlife Protection Act. 


Phytotaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 397 (1) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIANG LI ◽  
YUQIAN HUANG ◽  
XIAOKANG DAI ◽  
XING LIU

Isoetes shangrilaensis is recognized as a new species in Shangri-la and compared with Isoetes hypsophila, another species in the Hengduan Mountain Region. Spore sizes and ornamentations are useful to distinguish these two species. Isoetes shangrilaensis has tuberculate to rugulate megaspores and echinate to cristate microspores while Isoetes hypsophila has laevigate megaspores and bacculate to rugulate microspores. One nuclear and three chloroplast DNA sequences were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships of I. shangrilaensis, I. hypsophila and two other basic diploid Isoetes species (Isoetes taiwanensis and I. yunguiensis) in China. The phylogenetic tree showed a distinct separation between these two species: I. shangrilaensis was more closely related to other basic diploid species in China whereas I. hypsophila was distantly related. The delineation of Isoetes in this region can contribute to a better understanding of its phylogeny.


2021 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 763-779
Author(s):  
Chatmongkon Suwannapoom ◽  
L. Lee Grismer ◽  
Parinya Pawangkhanant ◽  
Mali Naiduangchan ◽  
Platon V. Yushchenko ◽  
...  

Abstract The integrated results of morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses confirmed the new species status of a recently discovered population of Ansonia from Suan Phueng District, Ratchaburi Province, Thailand. Ansonia karensp. nov. is separated from all other species of Ansonia by a unique combination of mensural, discrete morphological, and color pattern characteristics and is the sister species of A. thinthinae from Tanintharyi Division, Myanmar. This discovery fills a geographic hiatus of 350 km between it and A. kraensis from Ranong Province, Thailand. Ansonia karensp. nov. is the newest member of a long list of range-restricted endemics having been recently discovered in the northern Tenasserim Mountain region of western Thailand and continues to underscore the unexplored nature of this region and its need for conservation.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4941 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
KAI WANG ◽  
WEI GAO ◽  
JIAWEI WU ◽  
WENJIE DONG ◽  
XIAOGANG FENG ◽  
...  

Recent studies have highlighted the underestimated diversity of the genus Diploderma Hallowell, 1861 in the Hengduan Mountain Region in Southwest China, but much of the region remains poorly surveyed for reptile diversity. In this study we describe two new species of Diploderma from the upper Jinsha and middle Yalong River Valley, based on evaluations of morphological, genetic, and distribution data. The two new species are morphologically most similar to D. angustelinea and D. vela, but they can be diagnosed from both recognized taxa and all remaining congeners by a suite of morphological features, particularly the distinct coloration of gular spots. Additionally, both new species either render other recognized species paraphyletic or are allopatric with respect to their morphologically similar congeners. Furthermore, we rediscover D. brevicaudum in the wild for the first time, which was known from historical museum specimens only. We estimate the phylogenetic position of D. brevicaudum within the genus Diploderma based on mitochondrial genealogy, and we provide an expanded diagnosis and comparisons against closely related congeners and provide a detailed description of coloration in life based on newly collected specimens. Our discoveries of the new Diploderma species further highlight the urgent conservation needs of the currently neglected hot-dry valley ecosystems in the Hengduan Mountain Region of China. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 549-552
Author(s):  
Petr Mückstein

Paratrichius pejchai sp. nov. from the mountain region of Ha Giang province, northern Vietnam, is described and illustrated. The new species differs from all currently known species of the genus,Janson, 1881 in the pronotum extensively covered with pale yellowish chalky material, and in the unique shape of the male genitalia with ‘winglike’ protuberances on parameres. A list of,Janson, 1881 species occurring in Vietnam is provided.


PhytoKeys ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 187 ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Zhi-Yong Xiao ◽  
Xiao-Chun Li ◽  
Ying Luo ◽  
Chuan-Sheng Zeng ◽  
Bang-Gui Qiu ◽  
...  

Vicia mingyueshanensis, a new species from the Mingyue Mountain Region of western Jiangxi, China, is described and illustrated. It is a perennial climbing liana that always links to riparian woods. A morphological comparison indicated that the new species is closely similar to Vicia taipaica K. T. Fu and Vicia dichroantha Diels; however, it differs from the other two species by several salient characters, such as plant indumentum, stipule shape, corolla colour, bractlet shape and calyx shape. Photographs, a preliminary conservation assessment, table of morphological characters and distribution map comparing this new species to two morphologically-similar species are also provided.


Zootaxa ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3635 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIGUEL TREFAUT RODRIGUES ◽  
MAURO JR. TEIXEIRA ◽  
RENATO SOUSA RECODER ◽  
FRANCISCO DAL VECHIO ◽  
ROBERTA DAMASCENO ◽  
...  

Leposoma sinepollex sp. nov., a new species of the scincoides group, is described from a mountain region in the Atlantic Forest central corridor in state of Bahia, Brazil. The new species is characterized by elongate dorsal and lanceolate ventral scales arranged in diagonal rows, a single and smooth frontonasal, five supraoculars, absence of pollex, third toe as long as or longer than fourth, absence of striations in lower part of head, parietals longer than wide and as long as interparietal, 27–29 dorsals, 25–29 scales around body, 17–19 ventrals, 12–14 total pores in the male (absent in females), 9–10 and 9–11 subdigital lamellae respectively under IV Finger and IV Toe, and strong sexual color dichromatism with a black pigmentation in the ventral parts of males, creamy in females. The new species is morphologically similar to Leposoma nanodactylus, sharing with it among other features the synapomorphic division of the first supraocular. Phylogenetic analyses of 981 bp of combined sequences (cyt b+ ND4) recovered also a strongly supported (PP=1,0; BP=100) sister relationship between both species. The new species and Leposoma nanodactylus are placed sister to all the other Atlantic Forest species, with L. baturitensis being the first to diverge in this radiation. We discuss the distribution of the Atlantic Forest Leposoma, as well as possible scenarios for the origin of the new species.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 257 (2) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tran Van Tien ◽  
Nianhe Xia ◽  
Khoon Meng Wong ◽  
Nguyen Huu Toan Phan ◽  
DUY NONG VAN ◽  
...  

Schizostachyum langbianense is a new woody bamboo from a high mountain, Lang Bian, in southern Vietnam, which is being described and illustrated. It is similar to S. ninhthuanense in having short ultimate inflorescence branchlets on which clusters of a few pseudospikelets are borne. However, it differs in its culm leaves with a horizontal or only slightly concave apical portion, culm leaf blades that are narrowly lanceolate, and a palea that is not apically bifid and dorsally sulcate with 2 keels. Both species occur in the same mountain region, but separated by distinct elevations.


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