A new species of the genus Rhynchocalamus Günther, 1864 (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) from Ilam province in western Iran
Author
Fathinia, Behzad
Author
Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar
Author
Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah
Author
Darvishnia, Hamid
text
Zootaxa
2017
4282
3
473
486
journal article
32776
10.11646/zootaxa.4282.3.3
b62507f4-92ae-4f0c-ad05-4146c2915009
1175-5326
827922
45F9968A-02B2-46A5-91F1-E3E801C3ABB2
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
(
TableS 1–4
;
FigS. 2–4
)
Holotype
:
YUZM-CRh.1: road-kill, adult male, collected at Bina &
Bijar No-hunting area
(
33.640668N
,
46.038949E
,
724 m
aSl),
Ilam Province
,
Iran
on
June 6th 2011
.
Paratypes
:
YUZM-CRh.2: adult female, collected at Dinaar-Kooh preServed area (
32.948156N
,
47.333236E
,
1383 m
aSl),
Abdanan
,
Ilam Province
,
Iran
on
AuguSt 3rd, 2013
.
YUZM-CRh.3: juvenile, collected at Dinaar-Kooh preServed area (
32.952591N
,
47.344166E
,
1180 m
aSl),
Abdanan
,
Ilam Province
,
Iran
on
AuguSt 3rd, 2013
Description of
holotype
(
FigS. 2
a & b, 3a, 4a):
Pholidosis.
Elongate, Slender body; head Small, not diStinct from the neck; pupil round; roStral clearly offSet from adjacent ScaleS, wider than height, extending backward, wedging between the internaSalS; naSal undivided; internaSalS trapezoid in Shape; internaSal Suture Shorter than that between the prefrontalS; frontal length greater than width; SupraocularS narrow, narrower anteriorly than poSteriorly; parietalS large, longer than the frontal; right and left lorealS pentagonal in Shape; one preocular and one poStocular, much deeper than long; temporalS 1+1 on each Side; 7 SupralabialS on each Side (3rd and 4th in contact with eye); 9 infralabialS on each Side, the firSt pair in contact behind the mental; a large pair of anterior chin ShieldS, larger than poSterior oneS, in contact with the firSt four infralabialS; poSterior chin ShieldS Separated by one Scale; 13 dorSal ScaleS at level of the 10th ventral plate and 15 ScaleS at midbody and 15 ScaleS at level of the 10th plate before the cloaca; 211 ventralS; anal divided; 70 divided SubcaudalS.
TABLE 3.
Specimens of
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
included in this study with respective voucher reference, geographical distribution (latitude and longitude) and GenBank accession numbers.
| Species |
Voucher reference |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Cytb |
C-mos |
|
R. ilamensis
sp.nov.
|
YUZM-CRh.1 |
33.64067 |
46.03895 |
KY777448
|
----- |
|
R. ilamensis
sp.nov.
|
YUZM-CRh.2 |
32.94816 |
47.33324 |
KY777450
|
KY777447
|
|
R. ilamensis
sp.nov.
|
YUZM-CRh.3 |
32.95259 |
47.34417 |
KY777449
|
KY777446
|
FIGURE 2.
Dorsal (a) and Ventral (b) Views of the preserVed holotype specimen of
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
(YUZM-CRh.1).
FIGURE 3.
Dorsal head and neck View of
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
(a) holotye (YUZM-CRh.1); (b) paratype (YUZM-CRh.2); (c) paratype (YUZM-CRh.3).
Morphometric characters.
Snout-vent length
315 mm
; tail length
80.21 mm
; head length
9.45 mm
; head width
5.72 mm
; and head height
3 mm
.
Color pattern.
Upper Surface of head uniformly lemon, with no darker markingS or bandS; a thin U-Shaped dark marking on neck, with a thickneSS equal that of two adjacent ScaleS; dorSal Surface of body and tail uniformly lemon; ventral SurfaceS from mental to tail tip uniformly white; color pattern paler in alcohol preServed than live SpecimenS.
Description of
Paratypes
. Pholidosis.
Paratype
SpecimenS are Similar to
holotype
except for the following few variationS: 12 dorSal ScaleS at level of the 10th ventral plate in YUZM-CRh.3; 228 ventralS in YUZM-CRh.3 and
227 in
YUZM-CRh.2; 64 SubcaudalS in YUZM-CRh.3 and
61 in
YUZM-CRh.2.
Morphometric characters.
Snout-vent length
163 mm
for YUZM-CRh.3 and
260 mm
for YUZM-CRh.2; tail length
35.1 mm
for YUZM-CRh.3 and
56.12 mm
for YUZM-CRh.2; head length
6.33 mm
for YUZM-CRh.3 and
7.15 mm
for YUZM-CRh.2; head width
3.73 mm
for YUZM-CRh.3 and
3.57 mm
for YUZM-CRh.2; head height
2.05 mm
for YUZM-CRh.3 and
2.34 mm
for YUZM-CRh.2.
Color pattern.
In general, body color of the
paratypeS
iS Similar to that of the
holotype
, except for the following variationS: a Small dark Spot between parietalS in YUZM-CRh.2; neck band not U-Shaped, divided into two Separate blotcheS on either SideS of neck in both
paratypeS
.
Etymology.
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
iS named after
Ilam Province
, a Small province in the weSt of
Iran
having diverSe habitatS and ecoSyStemS Such
aS
high mountainS covered with oak foreStS,
weStern
limeStone foothillS of the ZagroS MountainS, alluvial plainS and Sand duneS, Supporting a rich diverSity of reptileS.
FIGURE 4.
Ventral head and neck View of
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
(a) holotye (YUZM-CRh.1); (b) paratype (YUZM-CRh.2); (c) paratype (YUZM-CRh.3).
Comparison.
A number of meriStic and multiState characterS differentiate
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
from itS congenerS (
R. arabicus
,
R. melanocephalus
and
R. satunini
): dorSum lemon in color (black in
R. arabicus
, yellowiSh brown in
R. melanocephalus
and pinkiSh in
R. satunini
); ventral white (black in
R. arabicus
, yellowiSh white in
R. melanocephalus
and pinkiSh in
R. satunini
); head uniformly lemon without marking(S) (uniformly black in
R. arabicus
and
R. melanocephalus
, and black tranSverS StripeS on parietalS and prefrontalS in
R. satunini
); dark neck marking
aS
a thin U-Shape or two Separated blotcheS (uniformly black in
R. arabicus
and
R. melanocephalus
, a thick tranSverSe black marking in
R. satunini
); neck band not in contact with ventralS (unknown in
R. arabicus
; in contact with ventralS in
R. melanocephalus
, not in contact with ventralS in
R. satunini
); neckband not in contact with head or headband (unknown in
R. arabicus
; in contact with headband in
R. melanocephalus
; not in contact with headband in
R. satunini
); Seven SupralabialS (
4–6 in
R. arabicus
,
6 in
R. melanocephalus
,
7–8 in
R. satunini
); nine infralabialS (
8 in
R. arabicus
, moStly
7 in
R. melanocephalus
, moStly
8 in
R. satunini
).
Cluster analysis.
ThiS analySiS baSed on 13 characterS (nine multiState and four meriStic) reSulted in a tree topography, with
R. arabicus
at the baSe of the tree, SiSter to a clade compoSing of
R. melanocephalus
,
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
and
R. satunini
. The tree topology ShowS that
R. satunini
iS SiSter to
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
(
Fig. 5
).
Habitat.
Rhynchocalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
inhabitS the limeStone
weStern
foothillS of the ZagroS MountainS. Habitat cover iS made of annual to perennial plantS Such
aS
Gramineae
(annual graSSeS), buSheS and ShrubS (
Capparidaceae
:
Capparis spinosa
,
Cleome oxypetala
;
Caryophyllaceae
:
Gypsophyla linearifolia
,
G. pallida
;
Chenopodiaceae
:
Halocharis sulphurea
,
Noaea mucronata
,
Salsola imbricate
; CompoSitae:
Achillea conferta
;
RoSaceae
:
Amygdalus arabica
), and SparSe treeS (
Quercus brantii
and
Pistachia atlantica
).
Sympatric reptiles.
Some reptile SpecieS Sympatric to
Rhynchochalamus ilamensis
sp. nov.
are
aS
follow:
Agamidae
:
Laudakia nupta
,
Trapelus ruderatus
;
Lacertidae
:
Ophisops elegans
,
Acanthodactylus boskianus
;
Eublepharidae
:
Eublepharis angramainyu
;
Gekkonidae
:
Hemidactylus persicus
,
Mediodactylus heteropholis
,
M
.
ilamensis
;
Phyllodactylidae
:
Asaccus elisae
;
Scincidae
:
Ablepharus panonicus
,
Heremites auratus
;
Varanidae
:
Varanus nesterovi
;
Typhlopidae
:
Xerotyphlops vermicularis
;
Leptotyphlopidae
:
Myriopholis macrorhyncha
;
Boidae
:
Eryx jaculus
;
Colubridae
:
Eirenis persicus
,
E. punctatolineatus
,
E. coronelloides
,
Hemorhois ravergieri
,
Platyceps rhodorachis
,
Spalerosophis microlepis
,
Malpolon insignitus
,
Psammophis schokari
,
Telescopus tessellatus
;
Elapidae
:
Walterinnesia morgani
;
Viperidae
:
Macrovipera lebetina
,
Pseudocerastes persicus
,
P. urarachnoides
.
Phylogenetic reconstruction.
The concatenated dataSet compriSed 1182 aligned SiteS of which 221 were parSimony informative. Nucleotide frequency diStribution iS 30.7 % for A, 24.2% for C, 28.9% for T and 16.2% for G. Saturation analySeS revealed that the concatenated data-Set haS little SubStitution Saturation, i.e., the ISS value of 0.29 (the obServed index of SubStitution Saturation) iS Significantly lower than ISSc value of 0.77 (critical index of SubStitution Saturation), indicating that our data are Suitable for phylogenetic analySeS.
FIGURE 5.
Hierarchical cluster analysis of four species of
Rhynchocalamus
(
R. arabicus
,
R. melanocephalus
,
R. satunini
and
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
) based on multisate and meristic characters.
The ML phylogenetic tree (
Fig. 6
) ShowS that
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
iS phylogenetically related to
Rhynchocalamus
.
Rhynchocalamus
began diverging with
R. melanocephalus
which formS a SiSter taxon to a clade compoSed of the other three SpecieS (
R. arabicus
,
R. satunini
and
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
). The Second dichotomy SeparateS
R. arabicus
from a clade compoSed of
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
and
R. satunini
. ReconStructed ML tree baSed on
Cytb
SequenceS Showed a Similar topology to the concatenated dataSet, except for a polytomy at the baSal diviSion of
Rhynchocalamus
clade leading to an ambiguity in determining the moSt baSal clade within thiS genuS. The BI concatenated tree reSulted in a topology identical to the ML tree.
Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) method of meaSuring genetic diStance uSed for both the concatenated and
Cytb
dataSetS ShowS that
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
Separated from itS cloSeSt relative,
R. satunini
, by 6% and 9% in the concatenated and the
Cytb
SequenceS, reSpectively (
Table 4
). ThiS method alSo revealS the low genetic variability within theSe SpecieS (
Table 5
).
TABLE 4.
Genetic distance matrix among the four species of
Rhynchocalamus
based on Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) method in concatenated (below, grey cells) and
Cytb
(above, white cells) sequences.
|
R. arabicus
|
R. ilamensis
|
sp. nov.
|
R. melanocephalus
|
R. satunini
|
|
R. arabicus
|
0.12 |
0.12 |
0.13 |
|
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
|
0.09 |
0.13 |
0.09 |
|
R. melanocephalus
|
0.08 |
0.10 |
0.13 |
|
R. satunini
|
0.08 |
0.06 |
0.07 |
TABLE 5.
Genetic distance within the four species of
Rhynchocalamus
based on Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) method in
Cytb
and concatenated sequences. This parameter was not calculated for
R. arabicus
due to inadequate samples (only one sample was available). Abbreviations: D., distance; S.E., standard error of mean.
Cytb Concatenated
D. S.E. D. S.E.
R. arabicus
---- ---- ---- ----
R. ilamensis
sp. nov.
0.030 0.006 0.007 0.003
R. melanocephalus
0.003 0.002 0.002 0.001
R. satunini
0.022 0.005 0.014 0.003