A new species of wolf snake (Squamata: Colubridae: Dinodon) from southern Vietnam

Abstract

We describe a new species of wolf snake, genus Dinodon, from Lam Dong Province, southern Vietnam, based on morphological characters and molecular evidence from mitochondrial COI, Cytb, and 16S. Dinodon nuiongensis sp. nov. is diagnosed by the following combination of morphological features: a medium-sized species, reaching up to 630 mm in total length; 8 or 9 supralabials, with the third to fifth contacting the eye; 10 infralabials; a single loreal contacting the eye; 11 maxillary teeth; dorsal scale rows 17-17-15, with 7–11 keeled rows at neck and 9–11 at midbody; 210 or 211 ventrals; cloacal plate single; 74–82 paired subcaudals; hemipenis unforked, extending to the 8th or 9th subcaudal, with distal spinulate calyces, enlarged curved spines at middle part, and single sulcus spermaticus; and 19–23 and 11–14 cross-bands on the body and tail, respectively. The new species differs from its congeners by uncorrected p-distances of at least 8.9% for COI, 8.7% for Cytb, and 1.0% for 16S.