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<document ID-DOI="http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/vz.71.e64345" ID-GBIF-Dataset="b43da3ef-5b99-455c-86b0-d7a44ccfc31e" ID-GBIF-Taxon="191979801" ID-Pensoft-Pub="2625-8498-71-253" ID-Pensoft-UUID="E144620F8A5554F197349B523AB10A30" ID-ZooBank="8BBB5786A54D4C5F842C7801DB21044C" LSID="urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:BCDF7898-79FE-41E6-806F-4935EF67C3DD" ModsDocID="2625-8498-71-253" checkinTime="1641857396688" checkinUser="pensoft" docAuthor="Deepak, V., Narayanan, Surya, Mohapatra, Pratyush P., Dutta, Sushil K., Melvinselvan, Gnanaselvan, Khan, Ashaharraza, Mahlow, Kristin &amp; Tillack, Frank" docDate="2021" docId="7759EE8D12FF5CB49412834543DADB7B" docLanguage="en" docName="VertZool 71: 253-316" docOrigin="Vertebrate Zoology 71" docPubDate="2021-05-13" docSource="http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/vz.71.e64345" docTitle="Platyceps josephi Deepak, Narayanan, Mohapatra, Dutta, Melvinselvan, Khan, Mahlow &amp; Tillack" docType="treatment" docVersion="6" id="E144620F8A5554F197349B523AB10A30" lastPageNumber="253" masterDocId="E144620F8A5554F197349B523AB10A30" masterDocTitle="Revealing two centuries of confusion: new insights on nomenclature and systematic position of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (auctt.), with description of a new species from India (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae)" masterLastPageNumber="316" masterPageNumber="253" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" updateTime="1642367465078" updateUser="donat">
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<mods:title>Revealing two centuries of confusion: new insights on nomenclature and systematic position of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (auctt.), with description of a new species from India (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae)</mods:title>
</mods:titleInfo>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Deepak, V.</mods:namePart>
<mods:nameIdentifier type="ORCID">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8826-9367</mods:nameIdentifier>
<mods:affiliation>Museum of Zoology (Museum fu ̈ r Tierkunde), Senckenberg Dresden, A. B. Meyer Building, 01109 Dresden, Germany &amp; Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW 7 5 BD, UK &amp; Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India</mods:affiliation>
<mods:nameIdentifier type="email">veerappandeepak@gmail.com</mods:nameIdentifier>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Narayanan, Surya</mods:namePart>
<mods:affiliation>Suri Sehgal Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Bangalore, Karnataka 560064, India</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Mohapatra, Pratyush P.</mods:namePart>
<mods:nameIdentifier type="ORCID">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8966-297X</mods:nameIdentifier>
<mods:affiliation>Zoological Survey of India, Central Zone Regional Centre, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 482002, India</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Dutta, Sushil K.</mods:namePart>
<mods:affiliation>Department of Zoology, Assam Don Bosco University, Tapesia garden, Kamarkuchi, Sonapur, Tepesia, Assam - 782402, India</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Melvinselvan, Gnanaselvan</mods:namePart>
<mods:affiliation>2757 Valanesam road, Gundupatti, Kookal Post, Kodaikanal, Dindugal, Tamil Nadu, 624103, India</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Khan, Ashaharraza</mods:namePart>
<mods:affiliation>Indian Herpetological Society, Pune, Maharashtra 411 009, India</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Mahlow, Kristin</mods:namePart>
<mods:affiliation>Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institut fuer Evolutions- und Biodiversitaetsforschung, 10115 Berlin, Germany</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
<mods:name type="personal">
<mods:role>
<mods:roleTerm>Author</mods:roleTerm>
</mods:role>
<mods:namePart>Tillack, Frank</mods:namePart>
<mods:affiliation>Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institut fuer Evolutions- und Biodiversitaetsforschung, 10115 Berlin, Germany</mods:affiliation>
</mods:name>
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<mods:title>Vertebrate Zoology</mods:title>
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<mods:date>2021</mods:date>
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<mods:number>2021-05-13</mods:number>
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<treatment ID-GBIF-Taxon="191979801" LSID="urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:BCDF7898-79FE-41E6-806F-4935EF67C3DD" httpUri="http://treatment.plazi.org/id/7759EE8D12FF5CB49412834543DADB7B" lastPageNumber="253" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<subSubSection type="nomenclature">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName LSID="http://zoobank.org/BCDF7898-79FE-41E6-806F-4935EF67C3DD" authority="Deepak, Narayanan, Mohapatra, Dutta, Melvinselvan, Khan, Mahlow &amp; Tillack, 2021" authorityName="Deepak, Narayanan, Mohapatra, Dutta, Melvinselvan, Khan, Mahlow &amp; Tillack" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
Platyceps josephi sp. nov. -
<normalizedToken originalValue="Josephs">Joseph's</normalizedToken>
racer
</taxonomicName>
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="description">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 14" captionStartId="F14" captionText="Figure 14. Holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) in preservation, from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. dorsal and B. ventral view. Scale bar 10 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure14" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542396" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figs 14</figureCitation>
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 15" captionStartId="F15" captionText="Figure 15. Line drawings showing head scalation and dimensions of the holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. dorsal, B. ventral, C. lateral right and D. lateral left view. Scale bar 10 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure15" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542397" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">, 15</figureCitation>
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 16" captionStartId="F16" captionText="Figure 16. Platyceps josephi sp. nov. in life from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India: A. Holotype NCBS-AU 732 (female, SVL: 757) from Tuticorin, B. Paratype NCBS-AU 733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin, C. Paratype BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin, D. uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin, E. Paratype ZSI-CZRC- 6639 (male, SVL: 574) from Karur, F. Uncollected (male) from Vathalagundu, G. uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin and H. uncollected (female, SVL: 655) from Pollachi. SVL in mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure16" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542398" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">, 16</figureCitation>
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 17" captionStartId="F17" captionText="Figure 17. Platyceps josephi sp. nov., dorsal view of preserved paratypes from Tamil Nadu state, India: A. ZSI-CZRC- 6639 (male, SVL: 574), from Karur, B. NCBS-AU 733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin, C. NMW 25465: 2 (male, SVL: 440) from Salem, and D. BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin. Scale bar 10 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure17" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542399" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">, 17</figureCitation>
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 18" captionStartId="F18" captionText="Figure 18. Platyceps josephi sp. nov. Variation of neck pattern in specimens from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India. Adults: A. Paratype, ZSI-CZRC- 6639 (male, SVL: 756) from Karur, B. Paratype, BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin, C. Paratype, NCBS-AU 733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin. Hatchlings / juveniles: D. Paratype, NMW 25465: 2 (male, SVL: 440) from Salem, E. ZSI 4379 (sex unknown, SVL: 204) from Anamalai hills, and F. ZSI-K 12374 (sex unknown, SVL: 242) from South India without specified locality. Scale bar 10 mm; SVL in mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure18" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542400" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">, 18</figureCitation>
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 19" captionStartId="F19" captionText="Figure 19. Hemipenis of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (ZSI-CZRC- 6639, paratype, right organ) from Karur, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. lateral, B. asulcal, and C. sulcal view. Scale bar 10 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure19" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542401" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">, 19</figureCitation>
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 20" captionStartId="F20" captionText="Figure 20. Skull of the holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. lateral, B. ventral (tooth bearing and connecting bones virtually extracted), C. dorsal and D. ventral view (lower jaw virtually extracted). Scale bar 2.0 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure20" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542402" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">, 20</figureCitation>
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="reference_group">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">Platyceps josephi</taxonomicName>
&quot;The Racer&quot;. -
<bibRefCitation author="Whitaker, Z" journalOrPublisher="National Book Trust, India, New Delhi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B408" refString="Whitaker, Z, Whitaker, R, 1986. The snakes around us. National Book Trust, India, New Delhi" title="The snakes around us." year="1986">Whitaker and Whitaker 1986</bibRefCitation>
, p. 56 [lower image].
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName authorityName="Gunther" authorityYear="1864" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Zamenis" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Zamenis fasciolatus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="fasciolatus">Zamenis fasciolatus</taxonomicName>
. -
<bibRefCitation author="Anonymous" journalOrPublisher="Annual Report and List of Accessions" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B25" refString="Anonymous, 1879. Accessions to the Indian Museum during the quarter ending 31st December 1878. Reptilia, Batrachia. Indian Museum. Annual Report and List of Accessions 1879: 35." title="Accessions to the Indian Museum during the quarter ending 31 st December 1878. Reptilia, Batrachia. Indian Museum. Annual Report and List of Accessions 1879: 35." year="1879">Anonymous 1879</bibRefCitation>
, p. 35,
<bibRefCitation author="Sclater, W" journalOrPublisher="Fuhlrott-Museum &amp; Forschungsinstitut, Wuppertal" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B315" refString="Sclater, W, 1891. List of Snakes in the Indian Museum. Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, x+79 pp." title="List of Snakes in the Indian Museum. Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, x + 79 pp." year="1891">Sclater 1891</bibRefCitation>
, p. 28 [patim];
<bibRefCitation author="Wall, F." journalOrPublisher="Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B393" refString="Wall, F., 1914. A popular treatise on the common Indian snakes, Part xxii. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 23(1): 34-43, pl. 22." title="A popular treatise on the common Indian snakes, Part xxii. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 23 (1): 34 - 43, pl. 22." year="1914">Wall 1914</bibRefCitation>
, p. 34, pl. 22 [partim].
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName authority="Duméril &amp; Bibron, 1854" authorityName="Duméril &amp; Bibron" authorityYear="1854" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coryphodon" higherTaxonomySource="GBIF" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coryphodon fasciolatus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="fasciolatus">Coryphodon fasciolatus</taxonomicName>
. -
<bibRefCitation author="Beddome, RH" journalOrPublisher="International Journal of Fauna and Biological Studies" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B37" refString="Beddome, RH, 1862. Notes upon the land and fresh-water snakes of the Madras presidency. The Madras Quarterly Journal of Medical Science 5: 1-31, pl. 2." title="Notes upon the land and fresh-water snakes of the Madras presidency. The Madras Quarterly Journal of Medical Science 5: 1 - 31, pl. 2." year="1862">Beddome 1862</bibRefCitation>
, p. 16 f. [partim].
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName authorityName="Das" authorityYear="1996" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena fasciolatus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="fasciolatus">Argyrogena fasciolatus</taxonomicName>
[sic]. -
<bibRefCitation author="Whitaker, R" journalOrPublisher="Litteratura Serpentium (English Edition)" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B405" refString="Whitaker, R, 1978. Common Indian snakes. A field guide. MacMillan India Ltd., Delhi, xiv+154 pp." title="Common Indian snakes. A field guide. MacMillan India Ltd., Delhi, xiv + 154 pp." year="1978">Whitaker 1978</bibRefCitation>
, p. 31. [partim, image p. 32];
<bibRefCitation author="Sharma, RC" journalOrPublisher="Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, Occasional Papers" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="1 - 153" refId="B330" refString="Sharma, RC, 1982. Studies on the pholidosis and variability in characters showing sexual dimorphism in various species of Indian reptiles. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, Occasional Papers 35: 1 - 153" title="Studies on the pholidosis and variability in characters showing sexual dimorphism in various species of Indian reptiles." volume="35" year="1982">Sharma 1982</bibRefCitation>
, p. 123 [partim];
<bibRefCitation author="Whitaker, R" journalOrPublisher="Litteratura Serpentium (English Edition)" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B406" refString="Whitaker, R, 1982. Common Indian snakes. A field guide. MacMillan India Ltd., Delhi, xiv+154 pp. [reprint of 1978 edition]." title="Common Indian snakes. A field guide. MacMillan India Ltd., Delhi, xiv + 154 pp. [reprint of 1978 edition]." year="1982">Whitaker 1982</bibRefCitation>
, p. 31. [partim, image p. 32].
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Shaw" baseAuthorityYear="1802" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena fasciolata" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="fasciolata">Argyrogena fasciolata</taxonomicName>
. -
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson 1967</bibRefCitation>
, p. 260 ff. [partim];
<bibRefCitation author="Whitaker, R" journalOrPublisher="National Book Trust, India, New Delhi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B409" refString="Whitaker, R, Captain, A, 2004. Snakes of India. The field guide. Draco Books, Chennai, xiv+480 pp. [abridged version in Tamil published in 2006]." title="Snakes of India. The field guide. Draco Books, Chennai, xiv + 480 pp. [abridged version in Tamil published in 2006]." year="2004">Whitaker and Captain 2004</bibRefCitation>
, p. 138 [partim];
<bibRefCitation author="Hutton, AF" journalOrPublisher="Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="299 - 316" refId="B174" refString="Hutton, AF, David, P, 2008. Note on a collection of snakes from South India, with emphasis on the snake fauna of the Meghamalai Hills, (High Wavy Mountains). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 105 (3): 299 - 316" title="Note on a collection of snakes from South India, with emphasis on the snake fauna of the Meghamalai Hills, (High Wavy Mountains)." volume="105" year="2008">Hutton and David 2008</bibRefCitation>
, p. 314; Rameshwaran, 2008: 22, front cover [partim];
<bibRefCitation author="Ganesh, SR" journalOrPublisher="Hamadryad" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="46 - 63" refId="B136" refString="Ganesh, SR, Asokan, JR, 2010. Catalogue of Indian herpetological specimens in the collection of the Government Museum Chennai, India. Hamadryad 35 (1): 46 - 63" title="Catalogue of Indian herpetological specimens in the collection of the Government Museum Chennai, India." volume="35" year="2010">Ganesh and Asokan 2010</bibRefCitation>
, p. 57;
<bibRefCitation author="Vijayaraghavan, B" journalOrPublisher="International Journal of Life Sciences, special issue A" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B376" refString="Vijayaraghavan, B, Ganesh, SR, 2011. The illustrated book of South Indian snakes. The Chennai Snake Park Trust, Chennai, (7)+80+(3) pp." title="The illustrated book of South Indian snakes. The Chennai Snake Park Trust, Chennai, (7) + 80 + (3) pp." year="2011">Vijayaraghavan and Ganesh 2011</bibRefCitation>
, p. 40 [partim, fig. 18]; Bhupathy and Satishkumar 2013, p. 4960;
<bibRefCitation author="Chaitanya, R" journalOrPublisher="Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="21 - 37" refId="B64" refString="Chaitanya, R, Khandekar, A, Caleb, DG, Mukherjee, N, Ghosh, A, Giri, V, 2018. Herpetofauna of the Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Southern Western Ghats, India: An updated checklist with annotations on taxonomy and nomenclature. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 115: 21 - 37" title="Herpetofauna of the Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Southern Western Ghats, India: An updated checklist with annotations on taxonomy and nomenclature." volume="115" year="2018">Chaitanya et al. 2018</bibRefCitation>
, p. 24;
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4446.11.5.13567-13572" author="Sagadevan, J" journalOrPublisher="Journal of Threatened Taxa" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="13567 - 13572" refId="B303" refString="Sagadevan, J, Ganesh, SR, Anandan, N, Rajasingh, R, 2019. Recent records of the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) from southern Coromandel Coast, peninsular India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11 (5): 13567 - 13572, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4446.11.5.13567-13572" title="Recent records of the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) from southern Coromandel Coast, peninsular India." url="https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4446.11.5.13567-13572" volume="11" year="2019">Sagadevan et al. 2019</bibRefCitation>
, p. 13567 [partim, image 1a,c].
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName authorityName="Shaw" authorityYear="1802" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber fasciolatus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="fasciolatus">Coluber fasciolatus</taxonomicName>
. -
<bibRefCitation author="Hutton, AF" journalOrPublisher="Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="453 - 460" refId="B173" refString="Hutton, AF, 1949. Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Montains, Madura district, S. India. Part I-Snakes. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 48 (3): 453 - 460" title="Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Montains, Madura district, S. India. Part I-Snakes." volume="48" year="1949">Hutton 1949</bibRefCitation>
, p. 456;
<bibRefCitation author="Rajendran, MV" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B293" refString="Rajendran, MV, 1986. Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15)+1-135+1-88+1-112+1-4+(32)+89-112+1-32 pp. [in Tamil]." title="Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15) + 1 - 135 + 1 - 88 + 1 - 112 + 1 - 4 + (32) + 89 - 112 + 1 - 32 pp. [in Tamil]." year="1986">Rajendran 1986</bibRefCitation>
, part 1, p. 5, part 3, p.86-88, part 4, p. 1-4.
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="multiple">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">Platyceps josephi</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
- this work.
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="diagnosis">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Diagnosis.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
A medium sized (maximum total length 951 mm) snake with countersunk lower jaw; dark brownish dorsum; head with irregular white spots, two slanting roughly
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped white markings with black edges on either side, starting on the back of the head (behind parietals) extending into the body, almost the length of head; 13-18 prominent white bands in the anterior region of the dorsum in both juveniles and adults; 34-48 total bands on the body in both juveniles and adults; 23:21(exceptionally 23):16-18 smooth dorsal scale rows; 189-218 ventrals (males: 192-197; females: 189-216); 76-88 subcaudals (males: 83-88; females: 76-88); cloacal plate divided; tail without bands and underside creamish. Its dentition is characterized by 12-16 maxillary teeth, the last two enlarged and separated by a diastema, 9-11 palatine teeth, 14-15 pterygoid teeth and 15-16 mandibular teeth.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov</emphasis>
. shows most similarities with its sister taxon
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
in regard to pholidosis and colour pattern but can be distinguished from the latter by its lower number of midbody dorsal scale rows (21 vs. 23), its lower mean value of ventral scales (202 vs. 214), its lower mean value of subcaudal scales (82 vs. 87) and its lower mean of the sum of ventral and subcaudal scales (285 vs. 304), the presence of the clearly demarcated two slanting roughly
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped white markings on the back of head vs. absence of such markings and distinct white bands on the dorsum in both juveniles and adults vs. ontogenetic change, i.e. bands present in juveniles only, but usually absent or faded in adults. Additionally,
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
differs from
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
in variation of mitochondrial DNA sequences. With pairwise uncorrected p-distances varying 4-5% in
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">cytb</emphasis>
&amp;
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">ND4</emphasis>
and 3% in
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">16S</emphasis>
. It is also clear from our thorough verification of distribution that these two species only have a minor range overlap in northeastern Tamil Nadu (Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 1" captionStartId="F1" captionText="Figure 1. Map showing geomorphological features in parts of the Indian subcontinent and current locality records (see Appendix 9) for Platyceps spp. mentioned in this study. Green (triangle) denotes the type locality and green (diamonds) for records of P. plinii comb. nov. Yellow (star) denotes the type locality, and yellow (circles) for the records of P. josephi sp. nov. Historically relevant names and important physiographic features are labelled." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure1" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542383" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">1</figureCitation>
Map).
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="materials_examined">
<materialsCitation collectingDate="1802-01-01" collectingDateMax="1802-12-31" collectingDateMin="1802-01-01" collectionCode="NCBS" collectorName="Naveen Joseph" country="India" elevation="0" latitude="8.75442" location="Tuticorin" longLatPrecision="1" longitude="78.18482" specimenCode="NCBS AU-732" specimenCount="1" specimenCount-female="1" stateProvince="Tamil Nadu" typeStatus="holotype">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<typeStatus>Holotype</typeStatus>
.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<specimenCode>NCBS AU-732</specimenCode>
, adult
<specimenCount type="female">female</specimenCount>
, from
<location LSID="urn:lsid:plazi:treatment:7759EE8D12FF5CB49412834543DADB7B:0F615F1A7AB0BFD9EDD8806F0A7D26B1" country="India" latitude="8.75442" longLatPrecision="1" longitude="78.18482" name="Tuticorin" stateProvince="Tamil Nadu">Tuticorin</location>
,
<collectingRegion>Tamil Nadu</collectingRegion>
state,
<collectingCountry>India</collectingCountry>
(
<geoCoordinate degrees="8.75442" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="8.75442">8.75442° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="78.18482" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="78.18482">78.18482° E</geoCoordinate>
,
<elevation>5 m</elevation>
a.s.l) collected by
<collectorName>Naveen Joseph</collectorName>
on
<collectingDate>26th February 2017</collectingDate>
(Figs
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 14" captionStartId="F14" captionText="Figure 14. Holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) in preservation, from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. dorsal and B. ventral view. Scale bar 10 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure14" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542396" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">14</figureCitation>
-
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 16" captionStartId="F16" captionText="Figure 16. Platyceps josephi sp. nov. in life from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India: A. Holotype NCBS-AU 732 (female, SVL: 757) from Tuticorin, B. Paratype NCBS-AU 733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin, C. Paratype BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin, D. uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin, E. Paratype ZSI-CZRC- 6639 (male, SVL: 574) from Karur, F. Uncollected (male) from Vathalagundu, G. uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin and H. uncollected (female, SVL: 655) from Pollachi. SVL in mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure16" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542398" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">16 A</figureCitation>
and
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 20" captionStartId="F20" captionText="Figure 20. Skull of the holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. lateral, B. ventral (tooth bearing and connecting bones virtually extracted), C. dorsal and D. ventral view (lower jaw virtually extracted). Scale bar 2.0 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure20" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542402" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">20</figureCitation>
).
</paragraph>
</materialsCitation>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure14" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542396" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 14" startId="F14">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 14.</emphasis>
Holotype of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
(NCBS-AU 732) in preservation, from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
dorsal and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
ventral view. Scale bar 10 mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure15" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542397" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 15" startId="F15">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 15.</emphasis>
Line drawings showing head scalation and dimensions of the holotype of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
(NCBS-AU732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
dorsal,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
ventral,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">C.</emphasis>
lateral right and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">D.</emphasis>
lateral left view. Scale bar 10 mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure16" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542398" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 16" startId="F16">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 16.</emphasis>
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
in life from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
Holotype NCBS-AU732 (female, SVL: 757) from Tuticorin,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
Paratype NCBS-AU733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">C.</emphasis>
Paratype BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">D.</emphasis>
uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">E.</emphasis>
Paratype ZSI-CZRC-6639 (male, SVL: 574) from Karur,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">F.</emphasis>
Uncollected (male) from Vathalagundu,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">G.</emphasis>
uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">H.</emphasis>
uncollected (female, SVL: 655) from Pollachi. SVL in mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Paratypes.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
BNHS 3516 and NCBS AU-733, adult females, from Vagaikulam, Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="8.71634" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="8.71634">8.71634° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="78.00203" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="78.00203">78.00203° E</geoCoordinate>
, 28 m a.s.l.), collected by Naveen Joseph on 28th July 2017 and 3rd Novembe
<bibRefCitation author="R, Core Team" journalOrPublisher="Advances in Applied Science Research" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B297" refString="R, Core Team, 2017. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna." title="R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna." year="2017">r 2017</bibRefCitation>
, respectively. ZSI-CZRC-6639, adult male, from Karur, Tamil Nadu state, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="10.97382" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="10.97382">10.97382° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="78.08949" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="78.08949">78.08949° E</geoCoordinate>
, 114 m a.s.l.) collected by Melvin Selvan on 2nd August 2018 and NMW 25465:2, juvenile male, from Salem, Tamil Nadu state, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="11.74178" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="11.74178">11.74178° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="77. 93888" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="77.93888">77. 93888° E</geoCoordinate>
, 314 m a.s.l.), collected by Ferdinand Stoliczka and donated to the NMW collection on 11th January 1879.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Referred specimens.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
ZSI-CZRC-6521, adult female, from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="8.73448" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="8.73448">8.73448° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="77.97889" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="77.97889">77.97889° E</geoCoordinate>
, 33 m a.s.l.) collected by Naveen Joseph on 12th June 2017; ZSI-CZRC-6522, adult female, from Vilathikulam, Tamil Nadu state, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="9.125623" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="9.125623">9.125623° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="78.176763" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="78.176765">78.176763° E</geoCoordinate>
, 20 m a.s.l.), collected by Ahmed Jerith and Naveen Joseph on 2nd February 2018; ZSI-CZRC-7358, sex unknown, from Anaikatti, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu state, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="11.11221" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="11.11221">11.11221° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="76.75795" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="76.75795">76.75795° E</geoCoordinate>
, 581 m a.s.l.), collected by Jins VJ on 23rd Octobe
<bibRefCitation author="R, Core Team" journalOrPublisher="Advances in Applied Science Research" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B297" refString="R, Core Team, 2017. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna." title="R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna." year="2017">r 2017</bibRefCitation>
; ZSI-K 12374, hatchling, from South India, presented by Edward Gerrard to the ZSI collection; ZSI-K 4379, hatchling, from Anamalai hills, collected by Richard Henry Beddome, and NMW 25465:1, juvenile female, from Salem, Tamil Nadu, India (
<geoCoordinate degrees="11.74178" direction="north" orientation="latitude" precision="1" value="11.74178">11.74178° N</geoCoordinate>
,
<geoCoordinate degrees="77.93888" direction="east" orientation="longitude" precision="1" value="77.93888">77.93888° E</geoCoordinate>
, 314 a.s.l.) collected by Ferdinand Stoliczka. Because of the partly bad state of preservation or imprecise locality information we have excluded these specimens as potential type material.
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="etymology">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Etymology.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
The specific epithet is a patronym of late Mr Naveen Joseph. Naveen was a naturalist from Tuticorin, well known for his research on reptiles, particularly snakes in that region. He was a friend of VD, SN, and GM and helped them collect specimens of the new species.
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Suggested English name</emphasis>
:
<normalizedToken originalValue="Josephs">Joseph's</normalizedToken>
racer.
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Vernacular name</emphasis>
: In various parts of Tamil Nadu state this snake is called by the name &quot;Odugali Pambu&quot;
<normalizedToken originalValue="“ஓடுகாலிப்பாம்பு”">&quot;ஓடுகாலிப்பாம்பு&quot;</normalizedToken>
. It is a portmanteau word in Tamil language
<normalizedToken originalValue="“Odugali”">&quot;Odugali&quot;</normalizedToken>
is often used to address someone &quot;who
<normalizedToken originalValue="doesnt">doesn't</normalizedToken>
stay at home and elopes&quot; and
<normalizedToken originalValue="“Pambu”">&quot;Pambu&quot;</normalizedToken>
is the word for
<normalizedToken originalValue="“snake”">&quot;snake&quot;</normalizedToken>
.
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="description">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Description of the holotype.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Morphometric and merestic data are provided in Table
<tableCitation captionStart="Table 2" captionStartId="T2" captionText="Table 2. Meristic and morphometric (in mm) data for examined specimens of P. josephi sp. nov. Symmetrical head characters are given in left / right order." httpUri="http://table.plazi.org/id/1105BBDE12FD3C7A065B83C56DBC17C9" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" tableUuid="1105BBDE12FD3C7A065B83C56DBC17C9">2</tableCitation>
. Female. Specimen in good condition with three incisions into coelom at 80th, 106th and 123rd ventral respectively.
</paragraph>
<caption ID-Table-UUID="1105BBDE12FD3C7A065B83C56DBC17C9" httpUri="http://table.plazi.org/id/1105BBDE12FD3C7A065B83C56DBC17C9" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Table 2" startId="T2">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Table 2.</emphasis>
Meristic and morphometric (in mm) data for examined specimens of
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
Symmetrical head characters are given in left/right order.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<table pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Inventory no.</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">NCBS AU-732 holotype</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">ZSI-CZRC-6639 paratype</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">BNHS-3516 paratype</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">NCBS AU-733 paratype</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">NMW 25465:2 paratype</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">NMW 25465:1</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">ZSI-CZRC-6522</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">ZSI-CZRC-6521</emphasis>
</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">ZSI-CZRC-7358</emphasis>
</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">Sex</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">female</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">male</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">female</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">female</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">male</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">female</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">female</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">female</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">unknown</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">SVL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">757.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">574.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">592.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">608.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">440.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">255.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">574.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">722.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">TaL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">175.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">167.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">162.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">89.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">142.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">60.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">170.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">228.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">TL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">933.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">741.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">754.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">698.4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">582.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">315.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">745.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">951.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">HW</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">12.4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">11.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">13.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">11.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">7.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">13.4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">HL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">24.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">20.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">21.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">22.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">14.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">23.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">ED</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">RW</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">FL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">6.4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">6.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">FW</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">PrefL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">InL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">E-S</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">7.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">7.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">7.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">6.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">7.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">ParL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">6.3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">6.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">6.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.7</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">5.8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">ParW</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.5</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3.0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">4.6</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">DSR</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">23/21/18</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">24/23/17</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">23/21/17</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">23/21/17</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">21/21/17</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">23/23/17</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">23/21/16</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">PreVen</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">0</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">1</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">Ven</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">203</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">192</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">195</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">208</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">197</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">216</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">204</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">189</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">218</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">Subc</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">76</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">82</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">77</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">84</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">88</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">79</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">damaged</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">88</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">TS</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">283</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">276</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">275</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">293</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">288</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">297</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">280</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">NA</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">PrO</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">PoO</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2/2</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">T</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+2/2+3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3+4/2+2+4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3/2+3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3/2+3</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+2+3/2+3+4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3+4/2+2+4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3+4/2+2+4</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3/damaged</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">2+3/2+3</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">SupL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">8/8</td>
</tr>
<tr pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">SubL</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">9/9</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10/10</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10/10</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10/10</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">11/11</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10/10</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10/10</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">damaged</td>
<td colspan="1" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rowspan="1">10/10</td>
</tr>
</table>
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Body subcylindrical, dorsoventrally flattened. Head ovate, barely wider than the anterior end of body. Total lenghth 934 mm; snout-vent length 758 mm; tail length 176 mm; ratio tail length/total length 0.19; head length 24.0 mm; rostral large, 2.2 times broader than high, not protruding, rounded in dorsal view, and wedged in between internasals; the latter smaller (1.5 mm) and distinctly shorter along median suture than prefrontals (2.5 mm); mid-line suture between internasals and pre-frontals in straight line; distance from posterior tip of rostal to anterior edge of frontal 4.2 mm, the latter bell-shaped, 6.4 mm long with a maximum width of 4.7 mm; interocular width 7.0 mm; parietals 6.3 mm long, outer lateral and posterior margins of parietals surrounded by 13 scales between the upper postoculars; nasal completely divided, in contact with first and anterior half of second supralabial; nostril large in anterior shield; distance between posterior margin of nostril and anterior border eye 4.2 mm; loreal slightly longer (1.5 mm) than high (1.4 mm), in contact with posterior part of second and anterior half of third supralabial; preocular single, reaching top of head, touching frontal; presubocular squarish, smaller than preocular and loreal, in contact with third and fourth supralabial; 8/8 supralabials, fourth and fifth entering the eye, fifth highest; 2/2 postoculars, upper slightly broader, lower higher, lower postocular in contact with fifth supralabial; temporals in 2+3/2+3 rows, lower anterior slightly larger than upper; 9/9 sublabials, sixth largest, first five in contact with anterior inframaxillaries on both sides; anterior pair of inframaxillars broader and slightly longer (6.1 mm) than posterior pair (5.6 mm), which is distinctly separated by five inserted gulars; five gulars in a row between posterior edge of anterior inframaxillars and preventral; three preventrals and 203 ventrals; anal scute divided, right overlapping left; 76 paired subcaudals; terminal spine blunt; dorsal scales smooth, arranged in 23/21/17; apical pits present, but not consistently on all the dorsal scales, single or paired on dorsal part from the neck to near sacral region, single or triple pits present on dorsocaudal scales.</paragraph>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure17" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542399" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 17" startId="F17">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 17.</emphasis>
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
, dorsal view of preserved paratypes from Tamil Nadu state, India:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
ZSI-CZRC-6639 (male, SVL: 574), from Karur,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
NCBS-AU733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">C.</emphasis>
NMW 25465:2 (male, SVL: 440) from Salem, and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">D.</emphasis>
BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin. Scale bar 10 mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure18" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542400" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 18" startId="F18">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 18.</emphasis>
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
Variation of neck pattern in specimens from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India. Adults:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
Paratype, ZSI-CZRC-6639 (male, SVL: 756) from Karur,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
Paratype, BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">C.</emphasis>
Paratype, NCBS-AU733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin. Hatchlings/juveniles:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">D.</emphasis>
Paratype, NMW 25465:2 (male, SVL: 440) from Salem,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">E.</emphasis>
ZSI 4379 (sex unknown, SVL: 204) from Anamalai hills, and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">F.</emphasis>
ZSI-K 12374 (sex unknown, SVL: 242) from South India without specified locality. Scale bar 10 mm; SVL in mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dorsal scale reduction formula:</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">-3(6) +10(64) -10(67) +10(82) 10+11(87) 3+4(133) 8+9(151) -</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">23</emphasis>
-------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">21</emphasis>
-----------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">23</emphasis>
---------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">21</emphasis>
-----------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">23</emphasis>
--------------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">21</emphasis>
------------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">19</emphasis>
------------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">17</emphasis>
----------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">18</emphasis>
(203).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">-4(8) +11(65) -11(69) +11(84) -11(88) 3+4 (133) 8+9(150) +2(202)</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Dentition (see Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 20" captionStartId="F20" captionText="Figure 20. Skull of the holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. lateral, B. ventral (tooth bearing and connecting bones virtually extracted), C. dorsal and D. ventral view (lower jaw virtually extracted). Scale bar 2.0 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure20" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542402" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">20</figureCitation>
).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">14/16 maxillary teeth, the anterior 12/14 precranterian teeth are increasing in size posteriorly (from 0.9 to 1.6 mm length) and are followed by a diastema which is as long as the socket of the last precranterian tooth, and 2/2 slightly enlarged roundish cranterian teeth (~1.9 mm long) without groove. All maxillary teeth are slightly curved posteriorly, without significant interspaces. Medial to the precranterian teeth are single replacement tooth at different growth stages. One to 2 replacement teeth per cranterian tooth are found posteromedially to each tooth, showing different growth stages.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">9/9 palatine teeth, decreasing in size posteriorly. All are curved posteriorly shortly above the base. Lateral to the palatine teeth there are single replacement tooth at different growth stages. No significant interspace exists between the different palatine teeth. Posteromedial process of palatine large, expanding two pterygoid teeth.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">14/14 pterygoid teeth, decreasing in size posteriorly. All are curved posteriorly shortly above the base. Lateral to the pterygoid teeth there are single replacement tooth at different growth stages. No significant interspace exists between the different palatine teeth. The posterior 56% of the pterygoid are without teeth.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">15/15 mandibular teeth, increasing in size up to tooth 6/6 and from there decreasing in size posteriorly. All are slightly curved posteriorly. Medial to the mandibular teeth there are 1-2 replacement teeth at different growth stages.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hemipenis (based on ZSI-CZRC-6639, paratype, Karur, right organ, Fig. 19).</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">The hemipenis reaches up to 12th subcaudals and is 24.3 mm in length with a maximum width of 5.8 mm at 1/3rd of the proximal end. It is divided into three distinct areas; the proximal area (nearly 1/4th of the total hemipenial length) is smooth without any ornamentation, middle zone (about 28% of the total hemipenial length) is with spinulae and the apical calyculated portion (48% of the total hemipenial length). The spicules at the midbody of the hemipenis gradually reduce in size from proximal to the distal end. The calyculated area can be further divided almost equally into proximal half with large calyces and distal half with smaller and denser calyces. The sulcus spermaticus is single and runs straight across its length and opens into a wide and elongate naked area (3.3 mm) extending laterally from the proximal to distal end extending to the apex. The opening of the sulcus forms a triangular area and ends apically. The sulcus is bounded with thick walls. The calyces are larger proximally and gradually smaller and denser towards the distal end. The calyces distally are edged with papillae. Along the asulcate side, the spinous area starts more distally than the sulcate and lateral side. The proximal calyces are wider and elongated, with eight to nine well defined calyces extending towards the lateral side and the distal part of these calyces are scalloped. The calyces towards the distal part are with more of papiliated edges and are similar in micro-ornamentation with the sulcate side.</paragraph>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure19" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542401" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 19" startId="F19">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 19.</emphasis>
Hemipenis of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
(ZSI-CZRC-6639, paratype, right organ) from Karur, Tamil Nadu state, India:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
lateral,
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
asulcal, and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">C.</emphasis>
sulcal view. Scale bar 10 mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure20" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542402" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 20" startId="F20">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 20.</emphasis>
Skull of the holotype of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
(NCBS-AU732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. lateral, B. ventral (tooth bearing and connecting bones virtually extracted), C. dorsal and D. ventral view (lower jaw virtually extracted). Scale bar 2.0 mm.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Variation among the paratypes.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
See Table
<tableCitation captionStart="Table 2" captionStartId="T2" captionText="Table 2. Meristic and morphometric (in mm) data for examined specimens of P. josephi sp. nov. Symmetrical head characters are given in left / right order." httpUri="http://table.plazi.org/id/1105BBDE12FD3C7A065B83C56DBC17C9" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" tableUuid="1105BBDE12FD3C7A065B83C56DBC17C9">2</tableCitation>
for variations in merestic and morphometric features. Paratypes generally in moderate to good condition; NCBS-AU733, BNHS 3516 and ZSI-CZRC-6639 with single incision and NMW 24565: 2 without incision into the coelom. ZSI-CZRC-6639, male, both hemipenis removed for further examination. Tail/body ratio 0.22 in BNHS 3516, 0.13 in NCBS-AU733 and 0.23 in ZSI-CZRC-6639. Mid-line suture between internasals and pre-frontals not in a straight line in NCBS-AU733, BNHS 3516, NMW 24565: 2 and ZSI-CZRC-6639. Nostrils in BNHS 3516 situated above the center between both nasals. Loreals longer than high in NMW 24565: 2 and ZSI-CZRC-6639 and subequal in BNHS 3516. Temporals 2+3 (left), 2+2 (right) rows in ZSI-CZRC-6639; 2+3 (left), 2+2 (right) in NMW 24565: 2 respectively; 2+3 rows in the left side of BNHS 3516 and middle temporal in the second row (right) the largest than the other two and 2+3 on the left side of the NCBS-AU733 and the lower anterior temporal being the largest in all the paratypes on both sides. Posterior margin of the parietals surrounded by nine scales in BNHS 3516, fourteen scales in NCBS-AU733 and twelve scales in ZSI-CZRC-6639. Ten sublabials on both sides in BNHS 3516, NCBS-AU733, NMW 24565: 2 and ZSI-CZRC-6639 with only the first four in contact with the anterior inframaxillars in ZSI-CZRC-6639. One preventral in ZSI-CZRC-6639 and two pre-ventrals in NMW 24565: 2 and BNHS 3516 and preventrals absent in NCBS-AU733. Terminal scute sharp and intact in both BNHS 3516 and ZSI-CZRC-6639. Apical pits in BNHS 3516 and NCBS-AU733 are mostly single or double in the dorsal and double (single in few scales) above sacral but from the anterior part of the body, it is consistently double in all the scales from the position of the 10th ventral (single before that) until the tip of the tail for ZSI-CZRC-6639.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
NCBS-AU733 differs from the holotype in having a slightly darker frontal and suprocular scales, presence of irregular white spots in the temporal scales, and a small white line along the midline between the two prefrontals. The first band on the body is separated from the
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped markings by 2 scales on both the sides along the lateral side. 46-48 bands on the dorsum from neck to vent, anterior 18 bands are prominent with white and black edges which fades and become wider towards the vent.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
BNHS 3516 differs from the holotype by having dorsum darker, two prominent and two less prominent white spots parallel to each other in each parietal. The slanting
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
mark behind the head, two corners starts from the first row of scales behind parietal but shifts to the next row of dorsal after 4 (right) and 5 (left) scales, the other two diagonal corners ends on the first dorsal scales near 4th ventral. There are 16 subequal horizontal bands on 2-3 dorsal scales, first band on the body separated from the
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped markings by three scale on right and two scales on left and all the other bands laterally connected with a mix of broken pale and black markings. There are 34 bands on the dorsum from neck to vent, anterior 16 prominent which becomes less prominent but wider towards the vent. ZSI-CZRC-6639 is overall similar to the holotype in the dorsum colours but with irregular white spots on the dorsal side of the head, a faint white spot at the junction of preocular, supraocular, prefrontal and frontal on both the sides; a faint white stripe in the anterior end of the frontal, the white spot in the suture between frontal and suproculars on both the sides, faint; 8-10 irregular spots together on both parietals. The slanting
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
marking in the back of the head starts from the second row after the parietals on both the sides and continues towards the body but irregular. The first band on the body is separated from the
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped markings by 2 scales on both the sides along the lateral side. There are 42-44 bands on the dorsum from neck to vent, 14 prominent (white with black edges on each scale) which becomes less prominent but wider towards the vent. NMW 24565: 2 differs from holotype in having much lighter dorsum, by the presence of a white spot on the preocular-anterior frontal on both sides, two white spots along the midline suture on both parietals, one pair adjoining to frontal edge and other in the middle. The slanting
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped markings are much shorter extending only up to 7 rows of dorsal scales. About 39 visible bands on the dorsum of which anterior 13 are distinctly visible (see Figs
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 16" captionStartId="F16" captionText="Figure 16. Platyceps josephi sp. nov. in life from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India: A. Holotype NCBS-AU 732 (female, SVL: 757) from Tuticorin, B. Paratype NCBS-AU 733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin, C. Paratype BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin, D. uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin, E. Paratype ZSI-CZRC- 6639 (male, SVL: 574) from Karur, F. Uncollected (male) from Vathalagundu, G. uncollected (juvenile) from Tuticorin and H. uncollected (female, SVL: 655) from Pollachi. SVL in mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure16" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542398" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">16</figureCitation>
-
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 18" captionStartId="F18" captionText="Figure 18. Platyceps josephi sp. nov. Variation of neck pattern in specimens from various parts of Tamil Nadu state, India. Adults: A. Paratype, ZSI-CZRC- 6639 (male, SVL: 756) from Karur, B. Paratype, BNHS 3516 (female, SVL: 592) from Tuticorin, C. Paratype, NCBS-AU 733 (female, SVL: 608) from Tuticorin. Hatchlings / juveniles: D. Paratype, NMW 25465: 2 (male, SVL: 440) from Salem, E. ZSI 4379 (sex unknown, SVL: 204) from Anamalai hills, and F. ZSI-K 12374 (sex unknown, SVL: 242) from South India without specified locality. Scale bar 10 mm; SVL in mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure18" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542400" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">18</figureCitation>
).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Variation in dentition.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
The male paratype from
<normalizedToken originalValue="“Salem”">&quot;Salem&quot;</normalizedToken>
(NMW 25465: 2) show 12/12 maxillary teeth followed by a distinct diastema which is 50% longer as the socket of the last precranterian tooth and two enlarged cranterian teeth, 11/11 palatine teeth with a posteriomedial process of palatine expanding three pterygoid teeth, 15/14 pterygoid teeth with 41% of the posterior pterygoid without teeth, and 15-16 mandibular teeth, increasing in size up to tooth 7/7 and from there decreasing in size posteriorly.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Pholidosis.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Head 1.25-1.99 times longer than broad (male 1.25-1.67, females 1.35-1.99). Rostral twice as broad as high and visible from above. Internasals (in midline suture) usually smaller than prefrontals. Frontals 1.32-1.59 times longer than the maximum width (male 1.40-1.59, females 1.32-1.42). Posterior border of parietals uneven in shape at the median suture forming an acute angle in ZSI-CZRC-6639 and NCBS-AU733 or both parietals uneven forming a slightly acute angle in BNHS 3516 or more or less straight with an obtuse angle in NMW 25465:2 and NCBS-AU-732. Posterior edge of parietals less than half the maximum width. Loreals usually longer than high or higher than long in NCBS-AU732 (on both sides). Preoculars single with a small pre-subocular present below it. Preocular usually in contact with frontal or rarely separated in, e.g., NCBS-AU733. Predominantly eight supralabials, usually last three being larger (in length), fifth highest. Fourth and fifth supralabials in contact with eye. Postoculars often two with the upper scale slightly wider than the lower scale that is usually higher or somewhat subequal in e.g., ZSI-CZRC-6639 and NCBS-AU732 in left side or lower scale smaller in ZSI-CZRC-6639 on the right side but in one specimen NMW 25565:2 with three postoculars on the right side. Usually two anterior temporals (on both sides). Secondary temporals variable, normally three but sometimes two in, e.g., NMW 25465: 2 and ZSI-CZRC-6639 (on right side) and BNHS 3516, NMW 25465: 2 and NCBS-AU732 (on left side). Mostly ten sublabials, sometimes nine in, e.g., NCBS-AU732 or eleven in NMW 25465: 2 (on both sides); the anterior four, rarely five in contact with first inframaxillary, sixth, rarely seventh largest in NMW 25465: 2. Anterior inframaxillaries normally longer than wider than the posterior ones except in BNHS 3516 and ZSI-CZRC-6522. The posterior pair of inframaxillaries usually separated by two or three rows of gular scales of variable shape and size. Gulars in four to five oblique rows between the apical edge of the posterior inframaxillaries and first ventral. Ventrals in examined material 189-218 (males 192-197, females 189-218). Usually, one or two preventrals, rarely without preventrals as in NCBS-AU733. Anal scute divided right part overlapping left part. Subcaudals in 76-88 in pairs (males 82-88, females 76-88). Total body scales, including preventrals and terminal scale 275-297 (males 276-288, females 275-297).</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dorsal scale rows (DSR), usually arranged in 23-24/21, rarely 23/17 or sometimes 18 rows along the trunk. One male specimen from Karur shows anterior 24 DSR; Midbody DSR predominantly 21 except in one specimen ZSI-CZRC-6639 with 23 DSR and two specimens NCBS-AU732 and NCBS-AU733 shows 18 DSR and one specimen ZSI-CZRC-6521 shows 16 DSR in posterior part of the body.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dorsal scales with single or paired apical pits. Supracaudal scales usually with one to three pits on the first three to five scales followed the supracaudal reduction. In male (ZSI-CZRC-6639), consistently two pits from the midbody to the last supracaudal scale.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dorsal scale reduction formula summarized from five examined specimens (see Appendix 10). Only main reductions are given.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">4+5(6) 3+4(6-13) 2+3 or 3+4(116-133) 7+8 or 8+9 (144-151)</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">24</emphasis>
--------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">23</emphasis>
---------------------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">21</emphasis>
--------------------------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">19</emphasis>
---------------------------
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">17.</emphasis>
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">- 2+3 or 3+4(6-13) 3+4 (115-133) 7+8 or 8+9 (142-151)</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Two examined specimens (NCBS-AU732, holotype, and NCBS-AU733) and one specimen (ZSI-CZRC-6521) show an additional lateral increase to 18 and reduction to 16 dorsal scales involving rows 1-3 between 95 and 99% of ventral scales respectively.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dimensions and proportions.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">The body robust, moderately stout, roundish in cross section at midbody. Head moderately pointed, barely distinct from neck or sometimes slightly distinct. Eye large with black round pupil, 16-25% of head length. The longest examined specimens are from Karur (ZSI-CZRC-6639), a male specimen with 740 mm and a female from Tuticorin (ZSI-CZRC-6521) with 951 mm total length. The smallest specimens are from Salem including a male (NMW 25465: 2) with 582 mm and female (NMW 25465:1) with 315 mm total length. The tail/body length ratio ranges from 0.15 to 0.32 (males 0.29-0.32, females 0.15-0.32).</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="distribution">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Distribution.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is so far only known from Tamil Nadu state, India (see Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 1" captionStartId="F1" captionText="Figure 1. Map showing geomorphological features in parts of the Indian subcontinent and current locality records (see Appendix 9) for Platyceps spp. mentioned in this study. Green (triangle) denotes the type locality and green (diamonds) for records of P. plinii comb. nov. Yellow (star) denotes the type locality, and yellow (circles) for the records of P. josephi sp. nov. Historically relevant names and important physiographic features are labelled." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure1" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542383" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">1</figureCitation>
Map). It is reported from the Anaimallai Hills and different localities within the districts of Coimbatore (Anaikatti, Coimbatore, Pollachi), Dindigul (Batlagundu), Kanyakumari (Maruthuvazhmalai), Karur (Karur), Madurai (Madurai, Vadipatti), Salem (Salem), Theni (Meghamalai Hills), Thoothukudi (Tuticorin), Tirunelveli (Coutrallam, Manimutharu, Tirunelveli) and Villupuram (Auroville) (see Appendix 9 Gazetteer and Appendix 10).
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="biology_ecology">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Habitat and natural history.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
mostly inhabits open habitats with sandy or rocky patches in grasslands and scrublands in both inland and coastal areas of Tamil Nadu from elevations between 10 and 580 m a.s.l. (see Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 21" captionStartId="F21" captionText="Figure 21. Habitats of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. in Tamil Nadu state, India: A. close to the coast at the type locality Tuticorin, and B. inland habitat near Anaikatti, Coimbatore." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure21" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542403" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">21</figureCitation>
and Appendix 9). Most of the areas where they occur receive less than 500 mm annual rainfall except locations near the rain shadowed areas close to the Western Ghats receives higher rainfall (Anaikatti and Megamalai) (http://www.tnsccc.in/rainfall.php).
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4446.11.5.13567-13572" author="Sagadevan, J" journalOrPublisher="Journal of Threatened Taxa" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="13567 - 13572" refId="B303" refString="Sagadevan, J, Ganesh, SR, Anandan, N, Rajasingh, R, 2019. Recent records of the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) from southern Coromandel Coast, peninsular India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11 (5): 13567 - 13572, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4446.11.5.13567-13572" title="Recent records of the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) from southern Coromandel Coast, peninsular India." url="https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4446.11.5.13567-13572" volume="11" year="2019">Sagadevan et al. (2019)</bibRefCitation>
report a sighting from the dry evergreen forest in Auroville, Villupuram district, but it is pertinent to mention here that this region was originally a scrub jungle and the current dry evergreen forest is an anthropogenic habitat created a few years ago (
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2005.9712755" author="Blanchflower, P" journalOrPublisher="Journal of Threatened Taxa" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B42" refString="Blanchflower, P, 2005. Restoration of the tropical dry evergreen forest of peninsular India. Biodiversity, 6(1), 17-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2005.9712755" title="Restoration of the tropical dry evergreen forest of peninsular India. Biodiversity, 6 (1), 17 - 24." url="https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2005.9712755" year="2005">Blanchflower 2005</bibRefCitation>
).
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is usually observed under thorny bushes, rock boulders, paddy fields, heaps of dry coconut fronds and seen crossing roads (
<bibRefCitation author="Rajendran, MV" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B293" refString="Rajendran, MV, 1986. Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15)+1-135+1-88+1-112+1-4+(32)+89-112+1-32 pp. [in Tamil]." title="Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15) + 1 - 135 + 1 - 88 + 1 - 112 + 1 - 4 + (32) + 89 - 112 + 1 - 32 pp. [in Tamil]." year="1986">Rajendran 1986</bibRefCitation>
; NJ and MS personal observation). The holotype (NCBS-AU732) and the paratype (BNHS 3156) were both collected from human habitations. ZSI-CZRC-6639 was found under heaps of coconut fronds within a plantation surrounded by dry grasslands. NCBS-AU733 was collected from under a woodpile near a farmhouse surrounded by grassland. Two other referred specimens (ZSI-CZRC 6521 and 6522) from Tuticorin and one specimen (ZSI-CZRC-7358) from Anaikatti, Coimbatore were collected as roadkilled. It appears to be an uncommon snake in all known locations. However, in the past at least in Megamalai hills, it was recorded to be &quot;fairly common&quot; in the dry deciduous forests (
<bibRefCitation author="Hutton, AF" journalOrPublisher="Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="453 - 460" refId="B173" refString="Hutton, AF, 1949. Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Montains, Madura district, S. India. Part I-Snakes. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 48 (3): 453 - 460" title="Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Montains, Madura district, S. India. Part I-Snakes." volume="48" year="1949">Hutton 1949</bibRefCitation>
). The late Naveen Joseph and his team, who maintain a record for snake rescues in and around Tuticorin, had seen only 16 individuals in the 18 years between 2002 and February 2021.
</paragraph>
<caption doi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure21" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542403" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" start="Figure 21" startId="F21">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Figure 21.</emphasis>
Habitats of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
in Tamil Nadu state, India:
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">A.</emphasis>
close to the coast at the type locality Tuticorin, and
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">B.</emphasis>
inland habitat near Anaikatti, Coimbatore.
</paragraph>
</caption>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is a diurnal snake, terrestrial and swift in locomotion. However, there is a report of arboreal behaviour under artificial conditions (
<bibRefCitation author="Rajendran, MV" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B293" refString="Rajendran, MV, 1986. Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15)+1-135+1-88+1-112+1-4+(32)+89-112+1-32 pp. [in Tamil]." title="Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15) + 1 - 135 + 1 - 88 + 1 - 112 + 1 - 4 + (32) + 89 - 112 + 1 - 32 pp. [in Tamil]." year="1986">Rajendran 1986</bibRefCitation>
), but this is not known in the wild. It is an aggressive snake, flattening its head as a mock hood display mimicking a cobra, when agitated and biting freely, but it becomes docile after a few days in captivity (Rajendran, 1986; Hutton, 1949). Similar behaviour was observed during this study for specimens from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu (NCBS-AU732, NCBS-AU733 and BNHS 3516).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
The diet of the
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
chiefly consists of geckos, lizards and small rodents. It is observed to kill the prey by constricting and/or crushing the prey against ground or tree trunk. In all captive observations, it swallows the prey from the head first. It is an oviparous snake with few records of clutch sizes, 7-12 eggs (
<bibRefCitation author="Hutton, AF" journalOrPublisher="Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="453 - 460" refId="B173" refString="Hutton, AF, 1949. Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Montains, Madura district, S. India. Part I-Snakes. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 48 (3): 453 - 460" title="Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Montains, Madura district, S. India. Part I-Snakes." volume="48" year="1949">Hutton 1949</bibRefCitation>
;
<bibRefCitation author="Rajendran, MV" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B293" refString="Rajendran, MV, 1986. Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15)+1-135+1-88+1-112+1-4+(32)+89-112+1-32 pp. [in Tamil]." title="Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15) + 1 - 135 + 1 - 88 + 1 - 112 + 1 - 4 + (32) + 89 - 112 + 1 - 32 pp. [in Tamil]." year="1986">Rajendran 1986</bibRefCitation>
;
<bibRefCitation author="Rameshwaran, M" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="22 - 23" refId="B291" refString="Rameshwaran, M, 2008. A short note on the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802). Cobra 2 (4): 22 - 23" title="A short note on the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802)." volume="2" year="2008">Rameshwaran 2008</bibRefCitation>
), during the month of March and June and were 40 mm in length (
<bibRefCitation author="Rameshwaran, M" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="22 - 23" refId="B291" refString="Rameshwaran, M, 2008. A short note on the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802). Cobra 2 (4): 22 - 23" title="A short note on the Banded Racer Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802)." volume="2" year="2008">Rameshwaran 2008</bibRefCitation>
). Females are reported to lay their eggs in bunds (raised areas surrounding the paddy fields) of paddy fields (
<bibRefCitation author="Rajendran, MV" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B293" refString="Rajendran, MV, 1986. Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15)+1-135+1-88+1-112+1-4+(32)+89-112+1-32 pp. [in Tamil]." title="Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15) + 1 - 135 + 1 - 88 + 1 - 112 + 1 - 4 + (32) + 89 - 112 + 1 - 32 pp. [in Tamil]." year="1986">Rajendran 1986</bibRefCitation>
).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is reported only from one protected area (Megamalai) in its known range. The species faces a number of threats across its distributional range, including habitat destruction, because the grasslands in southern Tamil Nadu are being actively converted into plantations, farmlands and urbanisation. Although there are records from such converted plantations and human settlements,the
<normalizedToken originalValue="species">species'</normalizedToken>
ability to adapt and its reproductive success is not known. Rocky habitats in Madurai region are also highly affected by the mining activities and road traffic is another important threat to
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
Three out of the seven specimens collected in this study were roadkilled and six other uncollected roadkilled specimens were observed from various parts of Tamil Nadu between 2017 and 2020. The Area Of Occupancy (AOO) of
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is 72.000 km2 and Extent Of Occupancy (EOO) is 70,698 km2. Even though this is a relatively large area of distribution for a species, our field surveys and records suggest that this species has patchy distribution within its range. Also, much of the habitat in these regions where
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is reported are under severe threats like conversion of grasslands to farmlands, widescale monoculture plantations (
<taxonomicName class="Magnoliopsida" family="Myrtaceae" genus="Eucalyptus" kingdom="Plantae" lsidName="Eucalyptus" order="Myrtales" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Tracheophyta" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Eucalyptus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
sp.) and urbanization. Given this information, we suggest that
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
should be considered a species in the Vulnerable category according to the IUCN criteria.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Although local envenoming by congeners is reported for
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. najadum" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="najadum">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. najadum</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(
<bibRefCitation author="Minton, SA [jr]" journalOrPublisher="Journal of Wilderness Medicine" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="119 - 127" refId="B251" refString="Minton, SA [jr], 1990. Venomous bites by nonvenomous snakes: an annotated bibliography of colubrid envenomation. Journal of Wilderness Medicine 1: 119 - 127" title="Venomous bites by nonvenomous snakes: an annotated bibliography of colubrid envenomation." volume="1" year="1990">Minton 1990</bibRefCitation>
;
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1081/TXR-120004745" author="Kuch, U" journalOrPublisher="Revue suisse de zoologie" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B222" refString="Kuch, U, Mebs, D, 2002. Envenomation by colubrid snakes in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Journal of Toxicology-Toxin Reviews 21(1&amp;2): 159-179. https://doi.org/10.1081/TXR-120004745" title="Envenomation by colubrid snakes in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Journal of Toxicology-Toxin Reviews 21 (1 &amp; 2): 159 - 179." url="https://doi.org/10.1081/TXR-120004745" year="2002">Kuch and Mebs 2002</bibRefCitation>
;
<bibRefCitation author="Weinstein, SA" journalOrPublisher="Cheetal" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B400" refString="Weinstein, SA, Warrell, DA, White, J, Keyler, DE, 2011. &quot;Venomous&quot; bites from non-venomous snakes. Elsevier, London, xxvii + 336 pp." title="&quot; Venomous &quot; bites from non-venomous snakes. Elsevier, London, xxvii + 336 pp." year="2011">Weinstein et al. 2011</bibRefCitation>
), bites from
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
seem to be harmless and without any local symptoms.
<bibRefCitation author="Rajendran, MV" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B293" refString="Rajendran, MV, 1986. Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15)+1-135+1-88+1-112+1-4+(32)+89-112+1-32 pp. [in Tamil]." title="Snakes of our land. Jaya Publications, Palayamkottai, (15) + 1 - 135 + 1 - 88 + 1 - 112 + 1 - 4 + (32) + 89 - 112 + 1 - 32 pp. [in Tamil]." year="1986">Rajendran (1986)</bibRefCitation>
reported two bite cases, one being himself got bitten while trying to catch an individual in a paddy field and another for an adult male got bitten while harvesting the paddy. No local symptoms were observed after a bite from a later preserved specimen (BNHS 3516, paratype) to one of the authors (NJ) upon handling.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Juvenile
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
can easily be confused with juveniles of
<taxonomicName authorityName="comb. nov. - Banded racer" baseAuthorityName="Merrem" baseAuthorityYear="1820" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps plinii" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
but may be differentiated by the two slanting roughly
<normalizedToken originalValue="“∏”">&quot;&quot;</normalizedToken>
shaped markings on the back of the head.
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is found in sympatry with the Common cobra (
<taxonomicName authority="naja" class="Reptilia" family="Elapidae" genus="Naja" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Naja naja" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="naja">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Naja naja</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
) and the Common ratsnake,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Linnaeus" baseAuthorityYear="1758" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Ptyas" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Ptyas mucosa" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="mucosa">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Ptyas mucosa</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
, and can potentially also be confused with these two species.
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
<subSubSection type="discussion">
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Differences between
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
sp. nov. and South Asian congeners.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
is distinguished clearly from
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. bholanathi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="bholanathi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. bholanathi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. mintonorum" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="mintonorum">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. mintonorum</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. noeli" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="noeli">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. noeli</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. sindhensis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="sindhensis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. sindhensis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
by its higher number of midbody dorsal scale rows (21 vs. 19) and from
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. gracilis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="gracilis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. gracilis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
by its lower mean value of ventral scales (202 vs. 214), its lower value of subcaudal scales without overlapping (88 maximum vs. 118 minimum), its different neck pattern (whitish ∏-shaped marking vs. a yellowish-cream and black edged V-shaped marking), and by differing dorsal body pattern (irregular whitish transverse bars stippled with black vs. dorsal yellowish-cream and black-edged transverse bars).
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
shows similarities with
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
with regard to pholidosis and colour pattern but can be distinguished from the latter by its lower number of midbody dorsal scale rows (21 vs. 23), its lower mean value of ventral scales (202 vs. 214), its lower mean value of subcaudal scales (82 vs. 87), and its lower mean of the sum of ventral and subcaudal scales (285 vs. 304).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Comparision of Osteology.</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
The first detailed description of osteological features of
<taxonomicName authorityName="comb. nov. - Banded racer" baseAuthorityName="Merrem" baseAuthorityYear="1820" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps plinii" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
were based on a male and a female specimen (
<bibRefCitation author="Fraser, A" journalOrPublisher="Journal of Molecular Evolution" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B132" refString="Fraser, A, 1936. The Snakes of Deolali. With notes on their comparative osteology and peculiarities of dentition. Part 1-3. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 39(1): 58-82, 36(2): 264-291, 36(3): 464-501." title="The Snakes of Deolali. With notes on their comparative osteology and peculiarities of dentition. Part 1 - 3. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 39 (1): 58 - 82, 36 (2): 264 - 291, 36 (3): 464 - 501." year="1936">Fraser 1936</bibRefCitation>
). Later,
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
studied 15 preserved specimens of the Banded racer, including two disarticulated skeletons, and compared it among other species formerly allocated to the genus
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
with material of racer-like genera including Asian species currently placed in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(e.g.
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">elegantissimus</emphasis>
,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Geoffroy-st-hilaire" baseAuthorityYear="1827" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps florulentus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Gunther" baseAuthorityYear="1862" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps gracilis" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="gracilis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps gracilis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Brandt" baseAuthorityYear="1838" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps karelini" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="karelini">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps karelini</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName authorityName="Schmidt" authorityYear="1939" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber najadum" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="najadum">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber najadum</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Jan" baseAuthorityYear="1865" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps rhodorachis" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName authorityName="Schatti" authorityYear="2004" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps rogersi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="rogersi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps rogersi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">thomasi</emphasis>
,
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">variabilis</emphasis>
and
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Gray" baseAuthorityYear="1834" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps ventromaculatus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
) as well as
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Linnaeus" baseAuthorityYear="1758" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Dolichophis" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Dolichophis jugularis" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="jugularis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dolichophis jugularis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Menetries" baseAuthorityYear="1832" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Hemorrhois" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Hemorrhois ravergieri" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="ravergieri">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hemorrhois ravergieri</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and with
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Peters" baseAuthorityYear="1866" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Orientocoluber" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Orientocoluber spinalis" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="spinalis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Orientocoluber spinalis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
. He described several osteological characters which he used to delimit
<taxonomicName genus="C." lsidName="C. fasciolatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="fasciolatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">C. fasciolatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from other species of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato) and, because of differences from other racer-like genera he resurrected the genus
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
Werner for the Banded racer.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
In his comparison,
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
stated that the premaxilla of
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
is short and stout and its lateral processes are posteriorly orientated, whereas
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato) has a longer premaxilla with more nearly transverse processes. In
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
the nasals are stout, overlap the ascending process of premaxilla to some extent and posteriorly cover the nasal capsule more than in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato), there is nearly no overlap between nasals and premaxilla. He further states that the pterygoid of
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
show a medial flange on the bone with the result that the teeth are situated near the center of the pterygoid rather than along its medial edge as in the other species of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato), which have no medial flange. Additionally, he writes that the tooth rows on the pterygoid bones converge posteriorly, whereas in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato) the rows diverge and furthermore that the pterygoid processes at the basioccipital are lacking in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
, but well developed in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato). Beside skull morphology, he also studied the postcranial skeleton and included characters of midbody and caudal vertebrae in his investigation. He stated that in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
at the midvertebrae the accessory process is shorter and more dorsolaterally orientated and the ventral aspect of the centrum is stouter and that the transverse processes of the caudal vertebrae are broad based and show a prominent notch between the posterior edge of each process and the centrum.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Some of the osteological characters used by
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
were later specified and their phylogenetic significance assessed by
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
. The latter did not include
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
in his analysis but indicated extensive sexual, ontogenetic, geographical or uncorrelated intraspecific variation in old world racers.
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
refused to use dentition to separate distinct groups as &quot;The total number of teeth, their absolute length, the presence of a diastema, as well as the enlargement of the teeth posterior to the diastema is subject to considerable variation.&quot; For this reason, he considered osteological characters as diagnostic to delimit Palearctic from Nearctic groups, but only the shape and size ratios of the vertebrae show distinct characters to separate
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from other Palearctic genera because craniological features may show remarkable intraspecific variation.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
took into account (1) length of centrum/least width of neural arch (LC/WN), (2) length of centrum/width across prezygapophyses between outer edges of articular facets (LC/WP), (3) length of neural spine/least width of neural arch (LN/WN), but emphasizes that especially the ratio (1) is useful for delimitation, because it varies only within narrow limits (see Appendix 6 for the description of the measuring distances).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Recently,
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" author="Das, S" journalOrPublisher="Vertebrate Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="311 - 325" refId="B98" refString="Das, S, Campbell, PD, Roy, S, Mukherjee, S, Pramanick, K, Biswas, A, Raha, S, 2019. Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes). Vertebrate Zoology 69 (3): 311 - 325, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" title="Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" volume="69" year="2019">Das et al. (2019)</bibRefCitation>
provided a detailed skull description based on six specimens of the Banded racer and distinguished it from
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
mainly by its longer and elongated nasal horizontal lamina. The latter authors also mentioned a backward curved transverse process in contrast to a laterally directed narrow transverse process in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
, but did not name the belonging bone. We assume they were describing the premaxillary transverse processes. Finally, they separated
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
by the existence of a mesial transverse process at the pterygoid vs. no mesial transverse process.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
In contrast to the former studies on
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
mentioned above, material examined by us lead to different results (see also Appendix 7 and 8). In all examined
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
species lateral processes of the premaxilla are always curved posteriorly, but with variable length. This can result in short lateral processes as described by
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
and
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" author="Das, S" journalOrPublisher="Vertebrate Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="311 - 325" refId="B98" refString="Das, S, Campbell, PD, Roy, S, Mukherjee, S, Pramanick, K, Biswas, A, Raha, S, 2019. Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes). Vertebrate Zoology 69 (3): 311 - 325, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" title="Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" volume="69" year="2019">Das et al. (2019)</bibRefCitation>
and can be found in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov.,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
, and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
, but also in longer lateral processes as present in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. florulentus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and also in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov. Furthermore, we found that short lateral processes lead to a more pointed snout, thus a projected rostrum, a condition also commonly used as a key character to separate
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(see e.g.
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson 1967</bibRefCitation>
;
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9016" author="Rajabizadeh, M" journalOrPublisher="Cobra" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B292" refString="Rajabizadeh, M, Pyron, RA, Nazarov, R, Poyarkov, NA, Adriaens, D, Herrel, A, 2020. Additions to the phylogeny of colubrine snakes in Southwestern Asia, with description of a new genus and species (Serpentes: Colubridae: Colubrinae). PeerJ 8:e9016: 25pp. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9016" title="Additions to the phylogeny of colubrine snakes in Southwestern Asia, with description of a new genus and species (Serpentes: Colubridae: Colubrinae). PeerJ 8: e 9016: 25 pp." url="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9016" year="2020">Rajabizadeh et al. 2020</bibRefCitation>
). However, a projected rostrum of variable expression and a countersunk lower jaw is also reported for different
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
species by
<bibRefCitation author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Vertebrate Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="297 - 405" refId="B310" refString="Schaetti, B, Tillack, F, Kucharzewski, C, 2014. Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1863) - a study of the racer genus Platyceps Blyth, 1860 east of the Tigris (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae). Vertebrate Zoology 64 (3): 297 - 405" title="Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1863) - a study of the racer genus Platyceps Blyth, 1860 east of the Tigris (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae)." volume="64" year="2014">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
et al. (2014
</bibRefCitation>
; see also comments below).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
We found differences within the distal ends of the lateral processes of the premaxilla, which either are tapering into a single tip in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov.,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
, and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
, expanded and divided into two tips in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. florulentus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
or expanded into a stout end in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
as well as in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
. Because of this considerable intraspecific variation, we regard the form of the lateral processes of the premaxilla as an inappropriate character to delimit
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" author="Das, S" journalOrPublisher="Vertebrate Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="311 - 325" refId="B98" refString="Das, S, Campbell, PD, Roy, S, Mukherjee, S, Pramanick, K, Biswas, A, Raha, S, 2019. Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes). Vertebrate Zoology 69 (3): 311 - 325, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" title="Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" volume="69" year="2019">Das et al. (2019</bibRefCitation>
, p. 313) stated that the premaxilla in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
has no nasal process but in contrast to that, a short (ascending) process is shown in the sketch (Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 1" captionStartId="F1" captionText="Figure 1. Map showing geomorphological features in parts of the Indian subcontinent and current locality records (see Appendix 9) for Platyceps spp. mentioned in this study. Green (triangle) denotes the type locality and green (diamonds) for records of P. plinii comb. nov. Yellow (star) denotes the type locality, and yellow (circles) for the records of P. josephi sp. nov. Historically relevant names and important physiographic features are labelled." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure1" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542383" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">1 B</figureCitation>
, lateral view). In all examined specimens we found an ascending process of the premaxilla, which varies in length and can be clasp by the anterior process of the nasals. If the ascending process of the premaxilla is longer than the lateral processes, we define them as
<normalizedToken originalValue="long">'long'</normalizedToken>
, e.g. in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
otherwise as
<normalizedToken originalValue="short">'short'</normalizedToken>
as in found in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov.,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. florulentus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
noted that the anterior processes of nasals overlapping the ascending process of premaxilla in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
vs. less overlap of nasals and ascending process of premaxilla in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato). We found this overlap in all examined species, whereby the nasals can be in contact with the ascending process of premaxilla in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov.,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. florulentus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
or just have a loose connection as in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
. Since this is a variable character and its presence in the Banded racer and
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp., makes this an inappropriate character for distinguishing genera.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Furthermore,
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
described the nasals of
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
as stout, as was verified by our analysis. The Banded racer,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov., has the most compact nasal bone of all
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
examined (TLn/TWn range 0.93-1.04), distinguished by the following values, viz.
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
(TLn/TWn range 1.16-1.18),
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. florulentus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(TLn/TWn 1.24),
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(TLn/TWn range 1.27-1.39), and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(TLn/TWn 1.28).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Wilson (l. c.) mentioned that in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
the nasal shield posteriorly expands dorsolaterally to cover the nasal capsule more completely as in the other
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato). Our measurements show that the nasal shield of the Banded racer tends to be shorter (TLln/Lns range 40%-50%) than in other examined
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. (TLln/Lns range 56%-77%) and therefore covers only a smaller part of the nasal capsule. Our comparison of the nasal shields revealed that it covers in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov. the posterior part of the nasal capsule completely, whereas in the other examined
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. (excluding
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
) only the middle part of the nasal capsule is enclosed. This resulted in a larger gap between the nasal shield and the frontal.
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
shows an intermediate state regarding this character as the nasal shield do enclose the posterior part of the nasal capsule but shows a larger gap than observed in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. plinii" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov. This character seems to be highly influenced by the lifestyle of the species and varies considerably interspecifically (
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
1987
</bibRefCitation>
).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
and
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" author="Das, S" journalOrPublisher="Vertebrate Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="311 - 325" refId="B98" refString="Das, S, Campbell, PD, Roy, S, Mukherjee, S, Pramanick, K, Biswas, A, Raha, S, 2019. Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes). Vertebrate Zoology 69 (3): 311 - 325, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" title="Cranial osteology and molecular phylogeny of Argyrogena fasciolata (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae: Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-04" volume="69" year="2019">Das et al. (2019)</bibRefCitation>
identified the presence of a medial flange at the pterygoid bone (with teeth) are situated near the centre of the pterygoid rather than along its medial edge vs. no such medial flange as a main character to separate
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato) and
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. This condition was not mentioned by
<bibRefCitation author="Fraser, A" journalOrPublisher="Journal of Molecular Evolution" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B132" refString="Fraser, A, 1936. The Snakes of Deolali. With notes on their comparative osteology and peculiarities of dentition. Part 1-3. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 39(1): 58-82, 36(2): 264-291, 36(3): 464-501." title="The Snakes of Deolali. With notes on their comparative osteology and peculiarities of dentition. Part 1 - 3. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 39 (1): 58 - 82, 36 (2): 264 - 291, 36 (3): 464 - 501." year="1936">Fraser (1936)</bibRefCitation>
and in Banded racer skulls studied by us, this medial flange is present in 60% of the examined specimens only (see Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 12" captionStartId="F12" captionText="Figure 12. Skull of Platyceps plinii comb. nov. (BMNH 37 a) from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh state, India: A. lateral, B. ventral (tooth bearing and connecting bones virtually extracted), C. dorsal and D. ventral view (lower jaw virtually extracted). Scale bar 1.5 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure12" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542394" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">12 D</figureCitation>
, medial flange absent). It is always present in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
, (see Fig.
<figureCitation captionStart="Figure 20" captionStartId="F20" captionText="Figure 20. Skull of the holotype of Platyceps josephi sp. nov. (NCBS-AU 732) from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state, India: A. lateral, B. ventral (tooth bearing and connecting bones virtually extracted), C. dorsal and D. ventral view (lower jaw virtually extracted). Scale bar 2.0 mm." figureDoi="10.3897/vz.71.e64345.figure20" httpUri="https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/542402" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">20 D</figureCitation>
) but lacking in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. florulentus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="florulentus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. florulentus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Another character listed by Wilson (l. c.) as typical for
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
deals with the pterygoid teeth row, which converges posteriorly in the Banded racer but diverges in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato). We cannot follow this observation as in all examined specimens the teeth row follows the medial edge of the pterygoid bone and therefore always converge posteriorly.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Wilson (l. c.) also described the pterygoid processes at the basioccipital which he mentioned as clearly visible in e.g.
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Brandt" baseAuthorityYear="1838" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps karelini" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="karelini">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps karelini</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Linnaeus" baseAuthorityYear="1758" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Dolichophis" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Dolichophis jugularis" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="jugularis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Dolichophis jugularis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Lacepede" baseAuthorityYear="1789" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Hierophis" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Hierophis viridiflavus" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="viridiflavus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hierophis viridiflavus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
but lacking in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
. In
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. examined by us, we found a high variability of this character, ranging from a basioccipital without structures, with three or five small tips or sometimes with a high crest. Our comparison of different development stages of
<taxonomicName family="Colubridae" genus="D." kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="D. jugularis" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="jugularis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">D. jugularis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="H." lsidName="H. gemonensis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="gemonensis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">H. gemonensis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="H." lsidName="H. viridiflavus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="viridiflavus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">H. viridiflavus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
show that in juveniles such structures are lacking while in adults, high crests and tips appear and the expression of this character is very likely age-dependent.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
Differences in midbody vertebrae morphology of racer species is highlighted as a character of phylogenetic significance (
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
1987
</bibRefCitation>
) and is compared here with the next related taxa. Vertebrae have been described and compared for
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato, including
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
) by
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
, for old world racers in general by
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
and for
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
by
<bibRefCitation author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Vertebrate Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="297 - 405" refId="B310" refString="Schaetti, B, Tillack, F, Kucharzewski, C, 2014. Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1863) - a study of the racer genus Platyceps Blyth, 1860 east of the Tigris (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae). Vertebrate Zoology 64 (3): 297 - 405" title="Platyceps rhodorachis (Jan, 1863) - a study of the racer genus Platyceps Blyth, 1860 east of the Tigris (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae)." volume="64" year="2014">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
et al. (2014)
</bibRefCitation>
.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
stated that in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
the accessory processes at the mid-vertebrae are shorter and more dorsolaterally orientated as in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato). Based on
<bibRefCitation author="Auffenberg, W" journalOrPublisher="Tulane Studies in Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="89 - 155" refId="B29" refString="Auffenberg, W, 1963. The fossil snakes of Florida. Tulane Studies in Zoology 2: 89 - 155" title="The fossil snakes of Florida." volume="2" year="1963">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Auffenbergs">Auffenberg's</normalizedToken>
(1963)
</bibRefCitation>
definition,
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
defined the same character as ratio of the length of centrum to the width across prezygapophyses between outer edges of articular facets (LC/WP) (see Appendix 6-8). Our analysis of this character revealed, that intraspecific variation can be very low as in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. ventromaculatus" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ventromaculatus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. ventromaculatus</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LC/WP range 0.76-0.86), but also more variable, e.g. in
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LC/WP range 0.55-0.88). The total range of ratio LC/WP for
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. examined ranges from 0.55-0.88 and included, with a wide overlap, the Banded racer,
<taxonomicName authorityName="comb. nov. - Banded racer" baseAuthorityName="Merrem" baseAuthorityYear="1820" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps plinii" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
comb. nov. with a LC/WP ratio range from 0.73-0.95 (see Appendix 7 and 8). Furthermore, this character state cannot be used to delimit the Banded racer and other
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. from next related genera because of overlapping values as determined for
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Reuss" baseAuthorityYear="1834" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Hemorrhois" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Hemorrhois nummifer" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="nummifer">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hemorrhois nummifer</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LC/WP range 0.63-0.71),
<taxonomicName genus="H." lsidName="H. ravergieri" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ravergieri">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">H. ravergieri</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LC/WP range 0.66-0.86) and
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Schlegel" baseAuthorityYear="1837" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Spalerosophis" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Spalerosophis diadema" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="diadema">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Spalerosophis diadema</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LC/WP 0.62).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
According to
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
the ventral aspect of the centrum of middorsal vertebrae in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
is stouter than in
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato).
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
used this character as quotient of the length of centrum and the least width of neural arch (LC/WN), based on
<bibRefCitation author="Auffenberg, W" journalOrPublisher="Tulane Studies in Zoology" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="89 - 155" refId="B29" refString="Auffenberg, W, 1963. The fossil snakes of Florida. Tulane Studies in Zoology 2: 89 - 155" title="The fossil snakes of Florida." volume="2" year="1963">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Auffenbergs">Auffenberg's</normalizedToken>
(1963)
</bibRefCitation>
definition. Our analysis of this character shows that for the Banded racer the values vary from 1.21-1.59 with lower extremes below the range of other
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
species with an LC/WN range from 1.32-1.70. But also this character does not allow reliable distinction between
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. (LC/WN range 1.21-1.70) and
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Hemorrhois" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Hemorrhois" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hemorrhois</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Reuss" baseAuthorityYear="1834" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Hemorrhois" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Hemorrhois nummifer" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="nummifer">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hemorrhois nummifer</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
1.22-1.39;
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Menetries" baseAuthorityYear="1832" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Hemorrhois" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Hemorrhois ravergieri" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="ravergieri">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Hemorrhois ravergieri</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
1.20-1.61). Although
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Schlegel" baseAuthorityYear="1837" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Spalerosophis" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Spalerosophis diadema" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="diadema">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Spalerosophis diadema</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
is distinguished here by the lowest value (LC/WN 1.08) it is based on a single examined specimen only and the variation for this character is not sufficiently studied for this species (see Appendix 6-8). As further character
<bibRefCitation DOI="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" author="Schaetti, B" journalOrPublisher="Amphibia-Reptilia" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" pagination="401 - 418" refId="B309" refString="Schaetti, B, 1987. The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes). Amphibia-Reptilia 8: 401 - 418, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" title="The phylogenetic significance of morphological characters in the Holarctic racers of the genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes)." url="https://doi.org/10.1163/156853887X00171" volume="8" year="1987">
<normalizedToken originalValue="Schätti">Schaetti</normalizedToken>
(1987)
</bibRefCitation>
defines the ratio of length of neural spine to least width of neural arch (LN/WN) as highly variable throughout the vertebral column in Holarctic racers. The analysis of this trait with respect to the position of the Banded racer to
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and other related genera revealed that the Banded racer tend to lower values (LN/WN range 0.81-1.01) but overlap to some degree the other examined
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. (LN/WN range 0.95-1.27). Similarly, to the conditions shown for the Banded racer the values for
<taxonomicName genus="H." lsidName="H. nummifer" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="nummifer">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">H. nummifer</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LN/WN range 0.84-1.07),
<taxonomicName genus="H." lsidName="H. ravergieri" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="ravergieri">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">H. ravergieri</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LN/WN range 0.80-1.16) and
<taxonomicName genus="S." lsidName="S. diadema" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="diadema">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">S. diadema</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LN/WN 0.80) lie near to the lower variation range of all examined
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(LN/WN range total 0.81-1.27) (see Appendix 6-8).
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
<bibRefCitation author="Wilson, LD" journalOrPublisher="Spolia Zeylanica" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" refId="B414" refString="Wilson, LD, 1967. Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23(4): 260-275." title="Generic reallocation and review of Coluber fasciolatus Shaw (Serpentes: Colubridae). Herpetologica 23 (4): 260 - 275." year="1967">Wilson (1967)</bibRefCitation>
used also the structure of caudal vertebrae to delimit
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
from
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Coluber" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Coluber" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Coluber</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(sensu lato) and described the transverse processes of it as broad-based proximally with a prominent notch between posterior edge of each process and the centrum. In contrast to that, he described for
<taxonomicName baseAuthorityName="Brandt" baseAuthorityYear="1838" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps karelini" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="karelini">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps karelini</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
,
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. najadum" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="najadum">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. najadum</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. rhodorachis" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="rhodorachis">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. rhodorachis</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
the processes as rather broad-based proximally, but not as much as in
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and without a posterior notch. In contrast to Wilson (l. c.) we found in five examined specimens of the Banded racer and four other
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp., including
<taxonomicName genus="P." lsidName="P. josephi" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">P. josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
, the transverse processes of the caudal vertebrae as broad based but with striking differences between the sexes. In all males the transverse processes are directed laterally, the base occupies ~ 75% of the centrum and show a posterior notch, the latter characterized by considerable variability in expression even within a single individual. Contrary to males, the processes in females are directed anterio-laterally with a much shorter base which occupies not more than 60% of the centrum and show a posterior notch with the same degree of variability as in males. For specimens studied by us, we conclude that this character is sex dependent and qualifies no differentiation between
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
and
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
.
</paragraph>
<paragraph pageId="0" pageNumber="253">
In summary, it is evident that
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
shares most osteological characters with
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
. Previous use of skeletal traits to underpin the distinctness of the genus
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
is shown invalid, with the exception of the form of the nasal shield as the only distinguishing character to the previous known
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
spp. But with respect to the latter character,
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps josephi" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="josephi">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps josephi</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
<emphasis bold="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">sp. nov.</emphasis>
show an intermediate state and linked the Banded racer with
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
. We therefore consider
<taxonomicName authorityName="Werner" authorityYear="1924" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Argyrogena" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Argyrogena" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Argyrogena</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
Werner, 1924 a junior subjective synonym of
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
Blyth, 1860 and relegate the Banded racer (auctt.) to the genus
<taxonomicName class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="genus">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
in the new combination
<taxonomicName authorityName="comb. nov. - Banded racer" baseAuthorityName="Merrem" baseAuthorityYear="1820" class="Reptilia" family="Colubridae" genus="Platyceps" higherTaxonomySource="CoL" kingdom="Animalia" lsidName="Platyceps plinii" order="Squamata" pageId="0" pageNumber="253" phylum="Chordata" rank="species" species="plinii">
<emphasis italics="true" pageId="0" pageNumber="253">Platyceps plinii</emphasis>
</taxonomicName>
(Merrem, 1820) (see the also conclusions in previous chapters).
</paragraph>
</subSubSection>
</treatment>
</document>