Rhabdophis tigrinus (BOIE, 1826)
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Rhabdophis tigrinus
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | Rhabdophis tigrinus tigrinus (BOIE 1826) Rhabdophis tigrinus formosanus (MAKI 1931) |
| Common Names | E: Tiger Keelback G: Tiger-Wassernatter, Tigernatter Russian: Тигровый уж Chinese: 虎斑颈槽蛇 |
| Synonym | Tropidonotus tigrinus BOIE 1826: 205 Amphiesma tigrinum — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 732 Tropidonotus lateralis BERTHOLD 1859 Amphiesma tigrinum — HALLOWELL 1860: 499 Tropidonotus orientalis GÜNTHER 1861: 391 Tropidonotus tigrinus — GÜNTHER 1888: 171 Tropidonotus tigrinus — BOULENGER 1893: 249 Tropidonotus tigrinus — BOULENGER 1896: 607 Natrix tigrina — STEJNEGER 1907: 272 Natrix tigrina lateralis — STEJNEGER 1907: 278 Natrix tigrina lateralis — MELL 1931 [1929] Natrix tigrina lateralis ab. caerulescens — EMELIANOV 1936 Natrix tigrina lateralis — GLASS 1946 Natrix tigrina — ALEXANDER & DIENER 1958 Rhabdophis tigrina — MALNATE 1960 Rhabdophis tigrinus lateralis — SZYNDLAR 1984 Rhabdophis tigrina lateralis ZHAO & JIANG 1986 Rhabdophis tigrina — KHARIN 2011 Rhabdophis lateralis — TAKEUCHI et al. 2012 Rhabdophis tigrinus — TAKEUCHI et al. 2012 Rhabdophis tigrinus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 637 Rhabdophis lateralis — YOSHIDA et al. 2020 Rhabdophis lateralis — PIAO et al. 2020 Rhabdophis tigrinus — PIAO et al. 2020 Rhabdophis tigrinus formosanus (MAKI 1931) Natrix tigrina formosana MAKI 1931 Rhabdophis tigrinus formosanus OTA & MORI 1985 Rhabdophis tigrinus formosanus OTA et al. 1999 Rhabdophis formosanus — TAKEUCHI et al. 2012 Rhabdophis formosanus — YOSHIDA et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | E Russia (Primorskiy and Khabarovsk territories) North Korea, South Korea China (widely distributed, except western third and extreme south; Chekiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hupeh, Guizhou, Sichuan, Gansu, Shensi, Suiyuan), Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan (Yakushima, Taegashima, Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, Ryukyu Islands) lateralis: Asian mainland tigrinus: Japan formosanus: Taiwan Type locality: “Japan”, “Dejima of Nagasaki City, eastern Kyushu, Japan” (fide Zhao & Adler, 1993). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Syntypes: ZFMK 8406, ZFMK 8407, BMNH 1861.12.27.9 (possibly additional specimens could neither be traced in RMNH nor in ZMA fide Böhme 2014). Holotype: NSMT H-2967 [formosanus] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (formosanus): Rhabdophis formosanus has many subcaudal (≤ 80 in males, ≤ 77 in females). Therefore, subcaudal counts could distinguish R. formosanus from R. tigrinus and R. lateralis, except the Kyushu populations of R. tigrinus with partially overlap of the ranges (Ota & Mori, 1985; Ota et al., 1999). They can be discriminated by longitudinally narrower dark blotches counts from the neck to the fiftieth ventral (BB50), which is in the range 15–20 in R. formosanus but 7–14 in the Kyushu populations of R. tigrinus (Toriba, 1992; Ota et al., 1999). Therefore, R. formosanus has the diagnosability from R. tigrinus and R. lateralis by a combination of characters (≤ 80 subcaudal in males, ≤ 77 subcaudal in females, and BB50 in both sexes). On the other hand, we have found no key characters that collectively discriminate R. lateralis from R. tigrinus. Therefore, further studies are needed to identify them. [from TAKEUCHI et al. 2012). |
| Comment | Venomous! Nomenclature: “tigrina” fide KHALIKOV 1998 (pers. comm.). Distribution: not listed for Vietnam (by SANG et al. 2009). Synonyms: R. lateralis is closely related to R. tigrinus but genetically distinct. Some authors treat it as synonym of tigrinus but more recent authors tend to treat it as valid. Diet: The diet of R. tigrinus on Kinkasan Island exclusively consisted of a frog, Rana tagoi, which is the only amphibian species inhabiting Kinkasan Island (Akira & Nagata 2016), but occasionally toads (Yoshida et al. 2020). Morphology: Rhabdophis is only one of three genera that posseses nuchal glands which contain cardiotonic steroid toxins known as bufadienolides. Rhabdophis tigrinus sequesters bufadienolides from its toad prey and stores them in the nuchal glands as a defensive mechanism (Takeuchi et al. 2018). |
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