Rhabdophis chiwen CHEN, DING, CHEN & PIAO, 2020
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Rhabdophis chiwen?
Rhabdophis chiwen
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Chiwen Keelback Chinese: 螭吻颈槽蛇 |
| Synonym | Rhabdophis chiwen CHEN, DING, CHEN & PIAO in PIAO et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | China (Sichuan) Type locality: Jiguan Mountain, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province (30°45'57.64" N, 103°14'3.52" E, and 1846 m a.s.l.) |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. CIB116092, an adult male, collected on 1st July 2019 by Li Ding (Figure 2 and 3). Paratypes. CIB116093, an adult male, collected from the same locality as holotype on 1st July 2019 by Li Ding. CIB116094- 95, two specimens, an adult male and an adult female, collected from Xingou Village, Tianquan County, Sichuan Province (29°55'42.39" N, 102°23'9.19" E, and 1461 m a.s.l.) collected on 22nd July 2018 by Li Ding and Zening Chen. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: 1) nuchal groove present, with enlarged and paired scales on each side; 2) Dorsal body saddlebrown, DSR in 15 rows throughout, feebly keeled, the outer 1–2 rows smooth; 3) dorsal scales typically with black margins forming some spots and stripes, the margin of the outer row forming two faint dorsolateral black cross-bars alongside body; 4) a black oblique stripe below the eye, often with a black spot between the 2nd and 3rd SL and a black stripe (or separated as black spots) on the 5th SL and the 1st TEM; 5) Eyes dark khaki, pupils black; 6) SL 5, the 3rd and 4th touching the eye: 7) usually 7 ILs (occasionally 6 or 8), the first four contact with anterior chin-shields; 8) 1 LR, and TEM 1+1; 9) VEN 151-159, the outer margin of ventral scales and several lateral rows of dorsal scales forming ventrolateral longitudinal brownish-red coloration, with faint black spots in the middle of each ventral scale and between scales which line a black stripe; 10) anal divided; SC 45–59; 11) PRO 1 (rarely 2) and PTO usually 3 (occasionally 2); 12) medium-sized body (SVL of adult males: 404–431 mm and adult females: 409–476 mm); 13) tail moderate and longer in males than in females (adult males: 104-131 mm, adult females: 91–107 mm) (Chen et al. 2020). Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 5934 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Distribution: see map in Nguyen & David 2023: Fig. 1. |
| Etymology | The species name of the new species “chiwen” is in reference to the ninth son of Loong in ancient Chinese myth who likes eating fire, and indicates the firefly-eating habit of this new species (Yoshida et al., 2020). |
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