Abstract
The taxonomic history of the Amphiesma sensu lato has long been confused, and this complex was recently divided into three genera, i.e., Amphiesma Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854 sensu stricto, Hebius Thompson, 1913, and Herpetoreas Günther, 1860. Being the least known genus, Herpetoreas is reviewed herein through an integrative taxonomic approach. Our results indicate that specimens previously referred to Hebius parallelus (Boulenger, 1890) from Mêdog, Tibet, China, represent a new species. We describe here this new species and refer it to the genus Herpetoreas; therefore, we remove Hebius parallelus from the Chinese herpetofauna. A diagnostic key to all the species of Herpetoreas is also provided. Furthermore, we re-evaluate the diagnostic characters of the three genera formerly confused with Amphiesma, namely, Amphiesma, Hebius, and Herpetoreas. We provide a key to these three morphologically similar genera. We also emphasize the importance of the maxillary teeth and hemipenial morphology in the generic diagnosis in the family Natricidae.
Highlights
The taxonomic history of the genus Amphiesma Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854 has long been confused and controversial mainly due to their morphological similarities, wide distribution, and cryptic diversity [1,2,3]
GTR+G was selected as the best-fit model for both Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analysis
Tree inferred from BI was consistent with the ML tree, and the topologies of our results are largely agreeing with previous analysis (Figure 1) [3,8,10,13]
Summary
The taxonomic history of the genus Amphiesma Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854 has long been confused and controversial mainly due to their morphological similarities, wide distribution, and cryptic diversity [1,2,3]. Species of this genus have successively been placed in the genera Tropidonotus Boie, 1826 and Natrix Laurenti, 1768 [1,4,5,6]. Subsequently divided Amphiesma into three genera, i.e., Amphiesma, Hebius Thompson, 1913, and Herpetoreas Günther, 1860 based on phylogenetic analysis After this generic division, the genus Amphiesma became monotypic, including only the well-known species. The third genus, in contrast, Herpetoreas mainly distributed in the southern foothills of the Himalayas, represents a lesser-known group among the three former genera of Amphiesma sensu lato [3,7]
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