Toxicocalamus longhagen ROBERTS, IOVA & AUSTIN, 2022
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Toxicocalamus longhagen
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| Higher Taxa | Elapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Toxicocalamus longhagen ROBERTS, IOVA & AUSTIN 2022 (nomen dubium) |
| Distribution | Papua New Guinea Type locality: Dobel, Mt. Hagen Town, -5.837603, 144.278022, 1,650 meters a.s.l. |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. PNGM 22160, 25 February 1967, collector unknown. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis. A medium-sized species with moderate habitus (566.0 total length, 12.8 maximum lateral width) with 15-15-15 dorsal scale rows, 200 ventral scales, 43 paired subcaudals, preocular present and not fused to prefrontal, preocular not in contact with internasal or nasal; prefrontal separating preocular from internasal and nasal by contacting second supralabial; frontal not fused with supraoculars; internasals not fused; four circumoculars – one supraocular, one preocular, two postoculars; nasals divided; one anterior temporal not fused with supralabials, one posterior temporal; six supralabials, the second in contact with prefrontal, preventing contact between nasal and preocular; cloacal plate divided; ventrals yellowish with light to dark brown. Toxicocalamus longhagen can be distinguished from T. holopelturus McDowell, 1969 by having paired subcaudals (vs. single); from T. mintoni Kraus, 2009, T. cratermontanus Kraus, 2017, T. stanleyanus Boulenger, 1903, T. misimae McDowell, 1969, T. longissimus Boulenger, 1896, T. buergersi (Sternfeld, 1913), and T. preussi (Sternfeld, 1913) by having preocular not fused to prefrontal (vs. fused); from T. pumehanae O’Shea, Allison & Kaiser, 2018 by having prefrontal distinct from internasal (vs. fused); from T. goodenoughensis Roberts & Austin, 2020, and T. pachysomus Kraus, 2009, by lacking contact between internasal and preocular (vs. internasal andpreocularincontact);fromT.nigrescensKraus,2017, T. loriae (Boulenger, 1898), T. spilolepidotus McDowell, 1969, T. grandis (Boulenger, 1914), and T. ernstmayri by having preocular lacking contact with nasal (vs. preocular contacting prefrontal and nasal). In having prefrontal in contact with second supralabial, preventing contact between preocular and either internasal or nasal, T. longhagen is most similar in head scalation to T. mattisoni Kraus, 2020. It can be further distinguished from T. mattisoni by presence of two postoculars (vs. one), by having one large posterior temporal (vs. two posterior temporals), and presence of more ventrals (200 vs.170–181). Toxicocalamus longhagen has scalation similar to some specimens of Apistocalamus loennbergii Boulenger, 1908, a taxon currently in synonymy with T. loriae (Kraus 2017; Kraus 2020); specifically, in both the new species and some A. loennbergii specimens, the prefrontal scale contacts the second supralabial, preventing preocular and nasal scale contact. Kraus (2020) described A. loennbergii as having “preocular and nasal scales [that] may or may not be in contact” because they are barely separated on just the right side in the lectotype (BMNH 1946.1.18.24) but bilaterally in contact in the two paralectotypes (BMNH 1946.1.18.25–26). Disregarding this character, T. longhagen can still be distinguished from A. loennbergii by having two postoculars (vs. 1, “exceptionally two” sensu Boulenger 1908), fewer ventrals (200 vs. 213–218), and more subcaudals (43 vs. 22–32). (Roberts et al. 2022) Additional details (2374 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Venomous! Kraus et al. 2023 argued that T. longhagen is a nomen dubium as it is inadequately diagnosed from several other members of the T. loriae group. As a consequence, it cannot be determined at this time whether the name denotes a valid taxon or a synonym of another species of the T. loriae Group. |
| Etymology | The specific epithet, longhagen, is a combination of “long” – a Tok Pisin word meaning ‘from’ and “hagen” that refers to the type locality of Mt. Hagen Town (Fig. 1). Tok Pisin is a uniting and official language of Papua New Guinea, the most linguistically complex region on the planet with more than 800 unique languages (Foley 2010). |
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