Abstract
A distinctive early Miocene-divergent lineage of Old world racer snakes is described as a new genus and species based on three specimens collected from the western Indian state of Gujarat. Wallaceophis gen. et. gujaratenesis sp. nov. is a members of a clade of old world racers. The monotypic genus represents a distinct lineage among old world racers is recovered as a sister taxa to Lytorhynchus based on ~3047bp of combined nuclear (cmos) and mitochondrial molecular data (cytb, ND4, 12s, 16s). The snake is distinct morphologically in having a unique dorsal scale reduction formula not reported from any known colubrid snake genus. Uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence for nuclear gene cmos between Wallaceophis gen. et. gujaratenesis sp. nov. other members of the clade containing old world racers and whip snake is 21–36%.
Highlights
Colubrid snakes are one of the most speciose among serpents with ~1806 species distributed across the world [1,2,3,4,5]
We describe the snake from Gujarat as a new species and propose a new genus to accommodate the striped form of Coronella [18]
Wallaceophis gen. nov. may be distinguished from most members of the family Colubridae in lacking hypapophyses on posterior dorsal vertebrae
Summary
Colubrid snakes are one of the most speciose among serpents with ~1806 species distributed across the world [1,2,3,4,5]. Racer and allied snakes have had immensely unstable state of taxonomy (especially members referred to the genus Coluber s.l. Linnaeus) and only in recent years some of it has been resolved most remain unattended, especially Asian taxa Vyas & Patel [18] depicted an uncollected snake in Fig 1 from Bhavnagar with two black longitudinal stripes to the genus Coronella while presenting new locality records for C. brachyura from Gujarat state. One of us rescued an adult male specimens of the striped form depicted in Fig 1 by Vyas & Patel [18] and the specimens from RV enabled us to investigate its phylogenetic position using morphological as well as molecular data.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
