Stoliczkia - (Jerdon, 1870)

Deepak, V., Lalronunga, Samuel, Lalhmingliani, Esther, Das, Abhijit, Narayanan, Surya, Das, Indraneil & Gower, David J., 2021, Phylogenetic relationships of xenodermid snakes (Squamata: Serpentes: Xenodermidae), with the description of a new genus, Vertebrate Zoology 71, pp. 747-762 : 747

Stoliczkia - (Jerdon, 1870)

(Fig. 3A-B (Fig. 3C-D)

Stoliczkaia - Boulenger, 1890

Stolickaia - Palacky, 1898

Stolickaja - Palacky, 1898

Estoliczkaia - Briceño-Rossi, 1934

Stoliczkaia - Smith, 1943

Stolzickia - Taub, 1967

Stoliczkai - Murthy and Pillai in Majupuria, 1986

Diagnosis.

This genus can be diagnosed based on the combination of the following features: (1) maxillary teeth small and subequal, (2) head very distinct from (much wider than) ‘neck’, with large shields on dorsal aspect, (3) posterior one-third of the head and posterior temporal region covered with small scales like those of the anterior end of the body, (4) 3 small scales between parietal and supralabial shields immediately behind eye (5) 8-9 supralabials, (6) nostril in a large concave nasal, (7) body slender and somewhat laterally compressed, (8) ventrals large, and (9) dark dorsum and pale venter meet along a regular straight line ventrolaterally and subcaudals partially or completely darker than venter.

Distribution.

This genus is restricted to Northeast India (Fig. 1 ). Stoliczkia khasiensis is thus far known only from Khasi hills, Meghalaya state, India and the recently described Stoliczkia vanhnuailianai is known only from Mizoram state, India.

Etymology.

The genus is named after the Moravian-born Ferdinand Stoliczka (1838-1874). A geologist-natural historian, he was appointed as a palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of India in 1863. Stoliczka collected vertebrates and molluscs from northern India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula. He served as the official Naturalist with the Second Mission to Yarkand, in central Asia. A biography and a list of published works and reports by Stoliczka can be found in Kolmaš (1982).

Figures

Figure 1. Left panel: Multilocus ML phylogeny showing relationships of xenodermid snakes. Numbers at internal branches are: ML bootstrap support / BI posterior probability support. Right panel: map depicting distribution of all currently recognised xenodermid genera. Source: GBIF, Teynie et al. 2015, Ziegler et al. 2008). Additional localities for Xenodermus javanicus from Smith, 1943; Tweedie, 1954; Taylor, 1965; David and Vogel, 1996; Wallach et al. 2014).

Figure 3. Line drawings of Stoliczkia khasiensis (A, B), Stoliczkia vanhnuailianai (C, D) and Paraxenodermus borneensis (E, F) based on ZSIK 14945, BNHS 3656 and BMNH 1946.1.15.58 respectively. Genus characteristics are highlighted in different colours: 1) some supralabials in contact with eye in Stoliczkia, separated by circumorbital scales in Paraxenodermus; 2) fewer supra- and infralabials in Stoliczkia than in Paraxenodermus; 3) single prefrontal in Stoliczkia versus 2 - 3 in Paraxenodermus, 4) fewer scales between parietal and supralabials immediately behind eye in Stoliczkia than in Paraxenodermus, and 5) small row of scales between frontal and prefrontals absent in Stoliczkia, present in Paraxenodermus. Note small scales behind the temporals are indicative rather than precisely accurate. Pale grey coloured areas are bare skin exposed between scales. Illustrations by V. Deepak and Surya Narayanan. Scale bars = 10 mm.