The newly named species, Lycodon neomaculatus sp. nov can be found throughout southern China as well as into Cambodia, eastern Myanmar (formerly Burma), Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In response to a push to elevate the Chinese wolf snake Lycodon subcinctus to species rank, researchers Tan Van Nguyen, Justin Lee, Olivier S.G. Pauwels, Stevie R. Kennedy-Gold, Nikolay A. Poyarkov, Patrick David and Grant Vogel (Duy Tan University, University of Michigan, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Harvard University, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, and Society for South East Asian Herpetology, respectively), worked to reinvestigate nomenclatural issues that the researchers say are relevant to Anoplophallus maculatus that has not been fully addressed in the literature.
One issue is that Anoplophallus maculatus was not described as a new species, but rather, they say, refers to Megalops maculatus a snake that doesn’t live in Asia, but rather in Mexico and currently is known as Leptodeira maculata.
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Because of this, the researchers say that L. subcinctus snakes from China currently known as Lycodon “maculatus” have no valid binomial name attributed to them. The researchers have provided a new species name for those Lycodon subcinctus snakes native to China and also include a morphological description of the snakes that have been found throughout mainland Southeast Asia.
Malayan banded-wolfsnake. Photo by Huy Nguyen Ngoc Xuan/Shutterstock
The newly named species, Lycodon neomaculatus sp. nov can be found throughout southern China as well as into Cambodia, eastern Myanmar (formerly Burma), Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Lycodon neomaculatus sp. nov differs from L. sealei and L. subcinctus due to differing adult dorsal color patters as well as body scalation, the researchers noted. They say that the distribution of L. neomaculatus sp. nov. and L. subcinctus could be geographically isolated by the Isthmus of Kra in peninsular Thailand.
An abstract of the paper, The nomenclatural status of “Anoplophallus maculatus” Cope, 1895, its consequences on the systematics of Lycodon subcinctus auctorum, and the description of a new species (Squamata: Colubridae)” can be read on the Zootaxa website.
