Oligodon cinereus (GÜNTHER, 1864)
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Oligodon cinereus
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Günther's Kukri Snake, Ashy Kukri Snake G: Graue Kukrinatter Chinese: 紫棕小头蛇 |
| Synonym | Simotes cinereus GÜNTHER 1864 Oligodon cinereus — SMITH 1940 Simotes swinhonis GÜNTHER 1864 Simotes multifasciatus JAN 1865 (fide SMITH 1943: 215) Simotes cinereus GÜNTHER 1864 Simotes semifasciatus ANDERSON 1871: 16 (fide SMITH 1943: 215) Simotes violaceus BOULENGER 1890 (non CANTOR; fide SMITH 1943) Holarchus dolleyanus COPE 1895: 423 Holarchus violaceus swinhonis — MELL 1931 [1929] Simotes violaceus pallidocinctus BOURRET 1934 Holarchus violaceus tamdaoensis BOURRET 1935: 7 Holarchus lightfooti — RENDAHL 1937: 24 Oligodon cinereus — TAYLOR 1965: 757 Oligodon swinhonis tamdaoensis HU et al. 1973 Oligodon cinereus — DAS 1996: 58 Oligodon sp. — ZIEGLER 2002 Oligodon cinereus — STUART et al. 2006 Oligodon cinereus — GEISSLER et al. 2011 (non O. cinereus GÜNTHER 1864) Oligodon cattienensis VASSILIEVA et al. 2013 Oligodon cattienensis — KWET 2014 (in error) Oligodon cinereus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 495 Oligodon condaoensis NGUYEN, NGUYEN, LE & MURPHY 2016 Oligodon cinereus — WANG et al. 2022 Oligodon cinereus pallidocinctus — DAVID et al. 2022 Oligodon cinereus tamdaoensis — DAVID et al. 2022 Oligodon plurimaculatus tamdaoensis — DAVID et al. 2022 Oligodon cattienensis — DO et al. 2023 Oligodon cinereus pallidocinctus — DO et al. 2023 |
| Distribution | India (Meghalaya, Assam; Arunachal Pradesh [A. Captain, pers. comm.], Mizoram), Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam (Binh Thuan, Kien Giang etc.), Myanmar (= Burma), Thailand, N West Malaysia, China (westward to Yunnan, incl. Hong Kong and Hainan, Guangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Hong Kong) Type locality: “Gamboja”, now Cambodia. cattienensis: S Vietnam (Dong Nai Province); Type locality: environs of Ben Cu forest station, Nam Cat Tien sector, Cat Tien National Park, Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam (11°26' 03" N, 107° 25' 42" E, 130 m elevation). condaoensis: S Vietnam (Hon Ba Island); Type locality: Hon Ba Island, Con Dao District, Ba Ria–Vung Tau Prov., Vietnam; coordinates 8°39’03”N, 106°33’29”E; elevation 15 m asl. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: BMNH RR 1946.1.1.25 (adult male). Holotype: ANSP 11432; China, Hainan [dolleyanus] Holotype: ZMMU R–13865 (field ID ZMMU NAP–02281), adult male, collected by Anna B. Vassilieva on 20 January 2011. Paratypes. ZMMU R–13815 (field ID ZMMU NAP–02165), adult male (roadkill) from type locality: Nam Cat Tien sector, Cat Tien National Park, Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam (11°25' 43" N, 107° 25' 38" E, 148 m a.s.l.) collected on 13 March 2012 by Eduard A. Galoyan; ZMMU R–13815 (field ID ZMMU NAP–02189), subadult female from type locality (11°27' 03" N, 107° 21' 52" E, 167 m a.s.l.) collected on 04 April 2012 by Eduard A. Galoyan; ZMMU R–13866 (field ID ZMMU NAP–02240), adult male from type locality (11°26' 23" N, 107°25' 33" E; 143 m a.s.l.), collected on 17 December 2012 by Anna B. Vassilieva; ZMMU R–11473, juvenile of undetermined gender from type locality, collected on 16 March 2003 by Vladimir V. Bobrov (preliminarily identified as Oligodon sp.); ZFMK 88921 (preliminarily identified as O. cinereus (Geissler et al. 2011), juvenile of unknown gender, from type locality (11°25' 43" N, 107° 25' 38" E, 148 m a.s.l.) collected by Robert Wayne Van Devender on 27 May 2009 [cattienensis] Holotype: ITBCZ 2595, adult male, collected by Sang Ngoc Nguyen on 24 October 2015. Paratypes. ITBCZ 2596, adult male; ITBCZ 2597–8, two adult females; collected around the site of the holotype on Hon Ba Island by Sang Ngoc Nguyen on 24 and 25 October 2015. [condaoensis] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Taylor 1965: 757 Additional details (2229 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Distribution: Not listed by GRANDISON 1977 for West Malaysia or Singapore. O. cinereus was reported from Borneo by DE ROOIJ (1917) under the name O. violaceus, but does not occur on Borneo according to MALKMUS et al. (2002). Specimens from Thailand identified as Oligodon cinereus multifasciatus and Oligodon cinereus swinhonis (Günther, 1864) are referred to Oligodon joynsoni (Smith, 1917) according to DAVID et al. 2011. Possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012). Subspecies: A morphologically variable species, Oligodon cinereus shows a variety of dorsal patterns (see Smith 1943), which have been used as a basis for describing several subspecies. However, the current intraspecific taxonomy of this species remains unresolved. Wagner (1975) showed in his unpublished MSc thesis that the differences between the various subspecies were unclear. Wagner refrained from accepting subspecies, a position that was followed by DAVID et al. 2011. O. cinereus is really several species (O. cinereus Günther (including O. v. pallidocinctus Bourret), O. swinhonis (Günther), O. multifasciatus (Jan) (including S. v. tamdaoensis Bourret), O. poilani (Bourret) (including S. v. plurimaculatus Bourret) [F. WAGNER, pers. comm.]. The original description is available online (see link below). Synonymy: Yushchenko et al. 2023 synonymized O. cattienensis with O. cinereus. These are quite variable species with brownish, greyish, or even greenish base color. See Figure 4 in VASSILIEVA et al. 2013 and Yushchenko et al. 2023: 76 (Fig. 1). David et al. (2023) and Lee et al. 2024 consider O. condaoensis as a junior synonym of O. cinereus, although genetic samples of the former taxon are lacking. Etymology: The specific epithet condaoensis is derived from Con Dao Islands, where the new species was discovered. Sexual dimorphism (condaoensis). The males are larger (SVL 461–481 mm vs. 395–401 mm) and darker than the females. The faint stripes on females are more visible than on the males. Tails in males are longer than in females (SC 37 vs. 33–34; TL/SVL 0.15 vs. 0.14) (Nguyen et al. 2016). Natural history (condaoensis). All specimens were collected in the daytime, between 9:00 am and 12:00 pm. The animals were found active on the ground of evergreen forest (Fig. 3D) near by Hon Ba Forest Ranger Station. Two nights of searching in the area failed to find the snake. This infers that the new species is diurnal. Another species, O. fasciolatus, was recorded sympatrically with the new species (Nguyen et al. 2016). |
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