Contia persica, Boulenger, 1893

Rajabizadeh, Mahdi, Nagy, Zoltán T., Adriaens, Dominique, Avci, Aziz, Masroor, Rafaqat, Schmidtler, Josef, Nazarov, Roman, Esmaeili, Hamid Reza & Christiaens, Joachim, 2016, Alpine-Himalayan orogeny drove correlated morphological, molecular, and ecological diversification in the Persian dwarf snake (Squamata: Serpentes: Eirenis persicus), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176, pp. 878-913 : 900-901

CONTIA PERSICA PERSICA TERENT ÉV & CHERNOV, 1965

Holotype

Adult male, ZDEU 136 /2005, legit. İ. Baran, Y. Kumlutas ¸, Ç. Ilgaz, and A. Avcı, 01.v.2005.

Paratypes

Twenty-two specimens. See Appendix 1.

Terra typica

Between Diyarbakır and Siverek , 48 km west of Diyarbakır (37°49′12.3″N, 39°37′58.5″E), S¸ anlıurfa Province, Turkey (locality indicated by circle 7 in Fig. 2 ). Altitude 1100 m a.s.l.

Diagnosis

Eirenis occidentalis sp. nov. is differentiated from all other congeners by having the unique combination of 186–213 ventrals in ♂ and 204–224 in ♀; 46–59 subcaudals in ♂ and 42–58 in ♀; ratio of the tail length over total length 13.43–19.49 in ♂ and 13.05–18.99 in ♀; usually seven, rarely eight, infralabials; unicoloured dorsum, anterior dorsal scales without dark base.

Description of the holotype

Body cylindrical; head small and not distinct from the neck; head and body scales not keeled; rostrum 0.98 mm high and 2.10 mm wide, bordered by two upper labials, two nasals, and two internasals; rostrum slightly curved towards top of the head and does not quite intrude between the internasals; nostrils situated on the nasal scales at either side; distance between the nostrils 2.44 mm; loreal absent; single preocular and postocular on each side of the head; eyes small, with circular pupil of 0.96 mm diameter; length of the narrow frontal 2.30 mm, width 1.54 mm; seven upper labials, third and fourth in contact with the eyes on each side; seven infralabials on each side; three pairs of infralabials in contact with the anterior chin shields at the left side and four at the right side; one anterior temporal and one posterior temporal on each side; ten dorsals plus temporal scales surrounding the posterior margin of the parietals; 15 dorsal scale rows at mid body, 17 at the level of one head length posterior to the head, and 15 at one head length anterior to the level of anus; two anal plates; two gular scales in contact with the posterior chin shield; 209 ventrals, 46/46 + one subcaudals; pileus length 7.62 mm, width 4.26 mm; head height 3.66 mm; snout–vent length 313.68 mm, tail length 48.66 mm.

The background colour of the head and the dorsum in the living specimen is reddish brown, changing to yellowish or light brown in the preserved specimen, dorsum without pattern; blackish marking over the dorsal head, connected to a 5–6-scale-wide blackish band on the nape; dorsal marking extends to both sides of the head, reaching the nasals, four upper labials (1– 4), around the eye, the postoculars, and the upper side of the temporals; a narrow black blotch extends from the upper part of the first sublabial to the contact of the third; a straight collar band can be seen over the lower part of the head; length of collar band 19 scales, not connected ventrally; the venter and the lower part of the tail uniformly cream, without maculation ( Fig. 14 ).

Variation

The paratypes agree in external morphology with the holotype. Detailed data on the paratypes (N = 21; 7♂, 14♀) and the single holotype are given in Appendix 3.

Dorsal background colour in preserved specimens yellowish or light brown, without dorsal pattern; black- ish marking on the dorsal head and a 4–7-scale-wide blackish band on the nape, usually separated from each other by a narrow light band crossing the tip of the parietals or connected to each other medially; the lateral head and the labials may be uniformly cream or the dorsal head marking may extend to the snout, the anterior or around eyes, adjacent supralabials or infralabials and upper margin of the temporal region; lower side of the head uniformly cream; the width of the nape’s band shrinks over the lateral sides of the neck and are detached over the ventral side.

Comparisons

This new species is distinguished from E. persicus by having a higher average number of ventrals, 186– 213 (x = 199.78) in ♂ and 204–224 (x = 211.29) in ♀ [compared with 190–203 (x = 195.6) in ♂ and 198–214 (x = 205.0) in ♀ in the latter species]; a lower average number of subcaudals, 46–59 (x = 51.89) in ♂ and 42–58 (x = 51.23) in ♀ [compared with 64–83 (x = 75.0) in ♂ and 54–77 (x = 66.25) in ♀ in E. persicus ] and a lower average ratio of the tail length over the total length, 13.43–19.49 (x = 16.30) in ♂ and 13.05–18.99 (x = 15.65) in ♀ [compared with 21.93– 29.09 (x = 23.80) in ♂ and 18.92–22.60 (x = 20.42) in ♀ in E. persicus ]; usually seven (78.3%), rarely eight, infralabials [compared with usually eight (88.9%), rarely seven]. The new species has a unicoloured dorsum and anterior dorsal scales without dark bases, which is different to E. nigrofasciatus , E. walteri , and E. angusticeps ( nigrofasciatus morph in E. nigrofasciatus , and both persicus morph, the anterior dorsal scales having dark bases, and the walteri morph in E. walteri and E. angusticeps ). The new species also differs from E. nigrofasciatus , E. walteri , and E. angusticeps in having a lower number of subcaudal scales, 42–59 in both sexes (compared with 67–96 in E. nigrofasciatus , 80–104 in E. walteri , and 77–85 in E. angusticeps ). Eirenis occidentalis sp. nov. differs from E. mcmahoni in having 15 anterior dorsal scales (compared with 13 in E. mcmahoni ). Eirenis occidentalis sp. nov. can be distinguished from the other species of the genus Eirenis by having 15 rows of dorsal scales at the mid body and usually no loreal scales (see Mahlow et al., 2013).

Distribution

Occurs in south-eastern Turkey (eastern Taurus Mountains and foothills) up to Kermanshah province in western Iran (localities indicated by circles 1 to 17 in Fig. 2 ).

Etymology

The name ‘occidentalis’ (Latin: ‘western’) indicates the westernmost known distribution of the taxon amongst the known species within the subgenus Pseudocyclophis .

Figures

Figure 2. All available distribution records of the Eirenis persicus species group. Circles indicate the E. persicus specimens, with the persicus morph bearing unicoloured dorsal scales; squires indicate specimens from eastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and southern and western Pakistan, having both persicus morph that base of their anterior dorsal scales are darker, and walteri morph; stars indicate specimens referred to Eirenis mcmahoni (Wall, 1911); plus symbols indicate specimens in north-eastern Pakistan, having both persicus morphs that base of their anterior dorsal scales are darker, and with walteri morph; asterisks indicate specimens with the novum pattern; triangles indicate specimens of the nigrofasciatus morph. Circle 29 indicates the type locality of Cyclophis persicus Anderson, 1872; squire 2 indicates the type locality of Pseudocyclophis walteri Boettger, 1888; squire 7 indicates the type locality of Contia zebrina Wall, 1923; triangle 6 indicates the type locality of Contia persica var. nigrofasciata Nikolsky, 1907; star 3 indicates the type locality of Contia angusticeps Boulenger, 1894; plus symbols 2–5 indicate the type series localities of Contia mcmahoni Wall, 1911. For more details, see Appendix 1.

Figure 14. Dorsal body (A), dorsal head (B), and lateral head (C) view of the holotype of Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) occidentalis sp. nov.