A new species of Plagiopholis Boulenger, 1893 (Serpentes, Pseudoxenodontidae) from Guangdong, China

2025/11/17 by Shuo Qi, Han-Ming Song, Hao-Cong Yang +9 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Amphibian and Reptile Biology #Venomous Animal Envenomation and Studies #Turtle Biology and Conservation

paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/zse.101.172706

openalex publication_date 2025/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/11/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

The genus Plagiopholis Boulenger, 1893 is a poorly studied genus from the Oriental realm, currently comprising six recognized species. We herein describe a new species of the genus, Plagiopholis maculosa sp. nov. from Guangdong Province, China. A morphological examination combined with two mitochondrial gene fragments (CO1 and cyt b ), was used to test its distinctiveness within Plagiopholis . Morphologically, the new species differs from other congeners by the following diagnostic characteristics: no loreal; temporals 2+2; maxillary teeth 17; 104 ventrals, excluding two preventrals; 24 pairs of subcaudals, excluding the tail tip; presence of a large inverted “V”-shaped nuchal blotch; and a series of distinctive irregular blotches on the dorsum. The phylogenetic analyses shows that the new species exhibits pronounced genetic divergence from all recognized congeners (12.73%–15.88% in CO1, 16.17%–17.54% in cyt b ). This discovery increases the number of valid species in the genus Plagiopholis to seven. Moreover, the extensive sampling gaps across its distribution suggest that additional cryptic species may remain to be discovered.

Citations

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• Survey of Branch Support Methods Demonstrates Accuracy, Power, and Robustness of Fast Likelihood-based Approximation Schemes

Cited by

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Discussions

• Researchers present a new species of 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠 from Guangdong, China. 🔗 doi.org/10.3897/zse.... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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