Calamaria nebulosa Lee 2021

Calamaria nebulosa Lee, 2021 Materials Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MS 856; recordedBy: Cheng Li and Tao Yang; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Calamaria nebulosa; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Chordata; class: Reptilia; order: Squamata; family: Calamariidae; scientificNameAuthorship: Lee, 2021; Location: country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Pu'er City; locality: Simao District; verbatimElevation: 1452 m; verbatimCoordinateSystem: 22.774026°N 101.18377°E; Event: eventDate: 24-06-2020; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MS 857; recordedBy: Cheng Li and Tao Yang; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Calamaria nebulosa; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Chordata; class: Reptilia; order: Squamata; family: Calamariidae; scientificNameAuthorship: Lee, 2021; Location: country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Pu'er City; locality: Simao District; verbatimElevation: 1447 m; verbatimCoordinateSystem: 22.774629°N 101.101378°E; Event: eventDate: 24-06-2020; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MS 858; recordedBy: Cheng Li and Tao Yang; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Calamaria nebulosa; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Chordata; class: Reptilia; order: Squamata; family: Calamariidae; scientificNameAuthorship: Lee, 2021; Location: country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Pu'er City; locality: Simao District; verbatimElevation: 1452 m; verbatimCoordinateSystem: 22.773236°N 101.100528°E; Event: eventDate: 24-06-2020; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Description Measurements All specimens are small-bodied snakes with an elongate body form. Male specimen (YBU-MS 856, Fig. 2): SVL 275.5 mm; TailL / TotalL ratio 0.089; Mid-body diameter 3.37 mm; Tail base diameter 3.59 mm. Female specimen (YBU-MS 857, Fig. 3; YBU-MS 858, Fig. 4): SVL 256.0 mm and 359.7 mm; TailL / TotalL ratio 0.056 and 0.079; Mid-body diameter 3.04 mm and 4.71 mm; Tail base diameter 2.32 mm and 3.65 mm. Head morphology and scalation Head is small and ovate in dorsal view, without clear demarcation from the neck. All newly-collected specimens lack internasal, loreal, temporal, preocular, interparietal and occipital scales. Snout is blunt. Nostrils are small and elliptical. Eyes small and elliptical; eye diameter is shorter than naris-eye distance. Rostral scale is triangular in dorsal view and wider than tall; the suture between prefrontal and rostral scale forms a shallow V shape. Nasal scales are small. Prefrontal are longer than wide and slightly shorter than the frontal scale. Frontal scale is subhexagonal and length-to-width ratio ranges from 1.06 to 1.42. The anterior angle formed by the suture is greater than 90 °, whereas the posterior angle formed by the parietal suture is less than 90 °. Parietal scales are longer than wide, broader anteriorly narrower posteriorly and longer than the frontal scale. Paraparietal scales contact the parietal scale and are surrounded by six scales. Supraocular scales are longer than wide. Postocular scales are broader than long. Supralabial scale four; the 1 st and 3 rd are the smallest and 4 th is largest and contacts postocular and parietal scales; the 1 st in contacts the nasal scale, the 2 nd and 3 rd in contact the eye. Infralabial scales five; the 1 st is smallest and prevents the mental scale from contacting anterior chin-shield scales; the 1 st to 3 rd contact anterior chin-shield scales; 3 rd and 4 th contact posterior chin-shield scales; 5 th is largest. Mental scale is triangular and wider than long. Anterior chin-shields are paired, pentagonal or subrectangular and in full medial contact with each other. Posterior chin-shields are paired and subtriangular and are separated medially by the first preventral gular scale. Body scalation Dorsal scale rows are 13–13 – 13 throughout body and all dorsal scales are smooth. Ventral scales counts 179–206. The anal scale is undivided and slightly larger than a ventral scale. Tail scalation All subcaudal scales are paired. End of tail obtuse point. Dorsal scale rows reduce from 13 to 8 at the 1 st subcaudal scale in both sexes; from 8 to 6 rows at the 4 th subcaudal scale in both sexes; from six to four rows at last 4 th subcaudal scale in the male and at last 1 st, 2 nd and 4 th subcaudal scale in females. Colouration in preservative After formalin fixation and storage for 5 years in 75 % ethanol, the three newly-collected specimens were dark brown dorsally. Dorsal scale margins are dark-brown; five longitudinal stripes originate at the nape and fade posteriorly towards the tail; top of head same colour as dorsum, faint yellow patterns on the occipital part of the head; bottom half of supralabials and rostral pale yellow; underside of head and rest of venter also pale yellow, margins of ventral scales immaculate; underside of tail the same as rest of venter. The scales of posterior body and tail exhibit structural colouration with blue under intense light. Colour in life not recorded. Diagnosis Revised diagnosis Morphological features of the three examined specimens are consistent with the original species description of C. nebulosa (Table 1), as follows: (1) Rostral scale wider than high; (2) The dorsally visible portion of the rostral scale is roughly half the length of the prefrontal suture; (3) Six scales and shields surrounding the paraparietal scale; (4) Preocular scale absent; (5) Four supralabials, with the 2 nd and 3 rd touching the orbit; (6) Five infralabials, the first pair separating the mental scale from the anterior chin shields; (7) Distinct white nuchal collar absent; (8) Posterior chin-shields meeting only anteriorly; (9) ventrals scales 179-192 in males and 198-206 in females. (10) Five faint dark brown longitudinal stripes on dorsum; (11) Ventral side of tail uniformly yellow in preservative. Morphological variation Compared with the holotype, major variation was observed in ventrals scale counts 192-206 (vs. 179), subcaudals scale counts 17-23 (vs. 22), DSR 6 R at subcaudals 4 th (vs. 12 th), DSR 4 R at subcaudals 14 th - 20 th (vs. 22 th) and dorsal coloration in preservative dark-brown (vs. bluish-grey). Comparisons Morphological comparison between C. nebulosa and other species of Calamaria distributed in Yunnan Province are summarised below. C. nebulosa differs from C. yunnanensis in the following characters: (1) a relatively large number of ventrals in males (179-192 vs. 167-189) and females (198-206 vs. 189-199); (2) longer total length in males (302.5-354 vs. 245-300); (3) and shorter total length in females (272-381 vs. 435-516). C. nebulosa differs from C. andersoni in the following characters: (1) absent preocular (vs. present); (2) more ventrals in males (179-192 vs. 161-171) and females (198-206 vs. 186). C. nebulosa differs from C. synergis in the following characters: (1) absent preocular (vs. present); (2) six scales surrounding paraparietal (vs. five); (3) nine maxillary teeth (vs. eight); (4) rostral height less than width (vs. greater than); (5) dorsum with pale light nuchal collar or absent (vs. present light); (6) more ventrals in males (179-192 vs. 161-166). C. nebulosa differs from C. pavimentata in the following characters: (1) absent preocular (vs. present); (2) rostral height less than width (vs. greater than or equal); (3) posterior chin-shields meeting only in anteriorly (vs. meeting in mid-line); (4) Obtusely pointed tail tip (vs. sharply pointed). Notes Etymology According to the meaning of nebulosa and English common name clouded reed snake, we propose the following Chinese name “云雾两头蛇” (yún wù liǎng tóu shé). Distribution C alamaria nebulosa is currently known from Phongsaly District, Phongsaly City, Phongsaly Province, Laos; and Simao District, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, China. Ecology C. nebulosa is a terrestrial, nocturnal species. In our case, individuals of this species were collected on an asphalt rural road in a low hilly landscape with terraced farmlands in the morning (Fig. 5). The local vegetation comprises eucalyptus, abundant herbaceous grasses and shrubs, as well as evergreen broadleaf forest. The microhabitat is crossed by an asphalt rural road with moderate anthropogenic disturbance from vehicle traffic and agricultural reclamation. The soil type is mountain red earth. The climate is humid subtropical, with moist air and often overcast conditions. Conservation status Based on the limited material of only four C. nebulosa specimens, the population size and genetic diversity cannot be evaluated at present. We provisionally assess C. nebulosa as Data Deficient (DD) under the IUCN Red List criteria. This assessment is, therefore, preliminary and additional field surveys, specimens and molecular data are required to re-evaluate its threat status in the future.