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| Psammophis turpanensis Chen, Liu, Cai, Li, Wu & Guo, 2021 Photos by Jinlong Ren. |
Abstract
An adult sand snake specimen was collected during a herpetofaunal survey conducted in the Turpan Basin in northwest China. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that this specimen, along with other snake sloughs and skins collected from different localities in the Turpan Basin formed a clade that is sister to Psammophis lineolatus. This taxon exhibited substantial divergence from its congeners (P. lineolatus and P. condanarus) with uncorrelated p-distances ranging from 11.9 ± 0.9% to 15.8 ± 1.6% for the ND4 gene and from 10.2 ± 0.8% to 13.8 ± 1.1% for the Cytb gene. Given the genetic differences along with morphological differences, we describe the specimen from the Turpan Basin as Psammophis turpanensis sp. nov. We provide detailed morphological descriptions, and compare this specimen with five Asian sand snakes and the Afro-Asian Sand Snake, P. schokari. In addition, we provide brief comments on the biogeography of Psammophis in China.
Keywords: Reptilia, Psammophis turpanensis sp. nov., phylogenetic tree, morphology, mitochondrial DNA, taxonomy
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| Photographs of the preserved specimen Psammophis turpanensis sp. nov. (CIB 118224, from Aydingkol Lake, Turpan city, Xinjiang), showing: (A) dorsal view of the whole body, (B) ventral view of the whole body, (C) dorsal view of the head, (D) ventral view of the head, (E) lateral view of the head on the right side, (F) lateral view of the head on the left side, (G) dorsal view of part of the body, (H) lateral view of part of the body, and (I) ventral view of part of the body. Photos by Jinlong Ren. |
Psammophis turpanensis sp. nov.
Etymology. This name turpanensis is taken from the type locality—Aydingkol Lake, located in the Turpan Basin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported species from the lowest elevation of the type locality in terrestrial animals.
We recommend “Turpan Sand Snake” as its English common name
and “Tu Lu Fan Hua Tiao She (吐鲁番花条蛇)” as its Chinese common name.
Minli Chen, Jinlong Liu, Bo Cai, Jun Li, Na Wu and Xianguang Guo. 2021. A New Species of Psammophis (Serpentes: Psammophiidae) from the Turpan Basin in northwest China. Zootaxa. 4974(1); 116–134. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4974.1.4