A new species of the genus Hebius (Squamata, Natricidae) from Yunnan, China

Abstract

A new species of the genus Hebius Thompson, 1913 is described from Yingjiang County, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, based on molecular and morphological evidence. It can be distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: (1) dorsal scale rows 19–17–17, feebly keeled; (2) ventrals 146–151; (3) nasal complete, nostril in the middle of the nasal; (4) supralabials 9, the fourth to sixth in contact with the eye; (5) infralabials 10–11, the first 5 touching the first pair of chin shields; (6) preoculars 2; (7) postoculars 3; (8) temporals 3, arranged in two rows (1+2); (9) maxillary teeth 31, the last 4 slightly enlarged, without diastema; (10) tail comparatively long, TAL/TL ratio 0.334 in the male; (11) dorsolateral series of irregular orange or ochre yellow blotches, extending from the neck to the posterior part of the tail; and (12) venter pale orange, tips of ventrals with subrectangular black blotches. All Hebius specimens were strongly recovered as monophyletic, in which Hebius taronensis (Smith, 1940) and Hebius venningi (Wall, 1910) were monophyletic as sister to the Yingjiang County specimens. According to the p‐distance of cytochrome b, the new species differs from its congeners by 9.7–15.4%.