Craspedocephalus macrolepis (Beddome, 1862)

Mallik, Ashok Kumar, Srikanthan, Achyuthan Needamangalam, Ganesh, Sumaithangi Rajagopalan, Vijayakumar, Seenapuram Palaniswamy, Campbell, Patrick D., Malhotra, Anita & Shanker, Kartik, 2021, Resolving pitfalls in pit viper systematics - A multi-criteria approach to species delimitation in pit vipers (Reptilia, Viperidae, Craspedocephalus) of Peninsular India reveals cryptic diversity, Vertebrate Zoology 71, pp. 577-619 : 577

Craspedocephalus macrolepis (Beddome, 1862)

Figures 4 , 5 , 6

Trimeresurus macrolepis Beddome, 1862

Peltopelor macrolepis (Beddome, 1862) - Günther, 1864; Malhotra & Thorpe, 2004

Trimeresurus macrolepis - Hutton, 1949; Malhotra & Davis, 1991; Vijayakumar et al., 2001; Chandramouli & Ganesh, 2010; Bhupathy & Sathishkumar, 2013

Trimeresurus (Peltopelor) macrolepis Beddome, 1862 - David et al., 2011

Craspedocephalus macrolepis (Beddome, 1862) (this work)

Taxonomic history.

Beddome (1862) described this species from the Anaimalai and Palani hills. The uniqueness of this species resulted in its being assigned to its own genus Peltopelor in a subsequent treatment by Günther (1864). Later, Smith (1943) subsumed this genus into Trimeresurus . Malhotra and Thorpe (2004) suggested a revised taxonomy for all Trimeresurus (sensu lato) groups and assigned them to different genera, reinstating Peltopelor as a valid genus (also see Wallach et al. 2014).

Type.

Lectotype, NHMUK 1946.1.18.72 (formerly BMNH 1861.12.30.80), a male (R.H. Beddome, 1857-1862), designated by Toriba in Golay et al. (1993: 101) .

Material examined.

Specimen series: Lectotype - NHMUK 1946.1.17.72 from " Anamallay Mountains , at 6000 feet " collected in 1857-62 by R. H. Beddome; CESS014, CESS015 from Vellimala, Periyar and CESS190 from Rajamalai, Kerala, collected in 2011, by Ashok Kumar Mallik; CESS170 from Uppupara, Goodrickal Range-west, Kerala, CESS256 from Devarmala, Tamil Nadu, collected in 2011, by Saunak P. Pal; BNHS2543 from Shenbaganur, Tamil Nadu and BNHS2545 from Paralai, Valparai collected in 1909, by Maj. Frank Wall.

Type locality.

"Anamallay Mountains; at 6,000 feet elevation" [= Anaimalai Hills, Western Ghats India, ca. 10°22'N; 77°08'E] by lectotype designation ( Wallach et al. 2014). The mentioned in the description is "Anamallay mountains at 6000 ft and Pulney Hills at 4000 ft" which is the current day Anamalais, south of the Palghat gap and the Palani hills further east. Here we restrict the nomen Trimeresurus macrolepis to the population distributed in mountain ranges north of the Shencottah gap.

Lineage diagnosis (redefined herein).

Within the C. macrolepis complex, C. macrolepis s. str. (L6) can be distinguished as follows: in having higher dorsal scale rows: 13-19 (vs. 10-14 in L7); lower ventral count 133-140 (vs. 150 in L7). Craspedocpehalus macrolepis (L6) is allopatric with its sister taxon (L7), from which it has a shallow genetic divergence (3.7% at cyt b and 0.7-1.0% at 16S rRNA). The low level of genetic divergence is the lowest genetic break between any the lineages inferred here (See Supplementary File 5: Table S4). This shallow genetic break coincides with a physical barrier (Shencottah gap) for these lineages.

Description.

A medium sized pit viper (recorded till 920mm by Ganesh et al. 2008) with a prehensile tail of length up to 136 mm; a distinct triangular head with large shield-like scales, with 1-3 cephalic scales between the undivided supraoculars with five scales surrounding the supraoculars, up to two scales between the internasal scales and the tip of the rostral scale visible from above; nasal scale entire, sub-rectangular and encompasses the nostril completely with 2-3 scales between the internasals; 1-2 scales between the nasal and the anterior part of the loreal pit; 8 supralabials and 9-12 infralabials on both sides; 6-8 scales including the last infralabial from the first ventral scale; three preocular scales of which the second and third scale from above constitute to form the posterior shields of the loreal pit; one or two post oculars; temporals smooth; 14-17 NSR (dorsal scale rows at neck), 13-19 MSR (dorsal scale rows at midbody), and 10 PSR (dorsal scale rows before vent), all keeled; Last row of scales on both sides bordered with a slightly larger row of scales, separating the ventral scales from the body; Ventrals 133-140, Anal scale undivided, followed by divided subcaudals 50-57.

Colour in life.

Specimens in life are in a uniform dark green throughout the dorsal surface, often with a black post ocular stripe that extends to 2 scale rows; the postocular stripe continues to a white to creamy white lateral stripe that stops at the vent; uniform creamy to light green ventrals with hints of light blue, that continues to the mandibular portion that is either yellow, light green, light blue or creamy white in colour; tail after the vent continues with dark green, feeble blue bands at the end of the tail, the terminal scale black or greyish with feeble white bands.

Colour in preservative.

Specimens in preservative show a range of variation in colour depending on the preservative; range from dark to light green on the head and dorsum with hints of or blue black bordering the scales; tail tip banded with grey and white bands, tail darker blue bands with bluish green.

Habitat.

A typically arboreal (rarely terrestrial) species (Ganesh et al. 2010) that is found in high elevation shola forests (tropical montane stunted rainforests) and forests bordering high elevation grasslands. Due to anthropogenic changes to the landscape, this species is also sometimes found in cultivated landscapes such as tea estates and cardamom plantations, found at elevations from about 1100 m asl to 2600 m asl.

Distribution.

Endemic to the southern Western Ghats. The revised distribution restricts this species to the high elevation landscapes of its range, the northern most limit being south of the Palghat gap, in the Nelliampathi hills, Anaimalai, with Palni hills being the eastern-most end of its distribution, extending southwards across High Wavy’s or Meghamalai, Kottaimalai Ranges in the Srivilliputhur-Periyar landscape, to the Sivagiri-Devarmalai range, ending north of the Shencottah gap.

Figures

Figure 4. Craspedocephalus macrolepis comb. nov. in life, showing: (A) juvenile entire view from High Wavy Mountains, (B) close up of hindbody and tail, (C) entire lateral view, (D) head dorsal view, (E) head and forebody lateral view; from Eravikulam, Anaimalai range.

Figure 5. Craspedocephalus macrolepis comb. nov. lectotype (NHMUK 1946.1.18.72), in preservation, showing: (A) entire dorsal view, (B) entire ventral view.

Figure 6. Craspedocephalus macrolepis comb. nov. lectotype (NHMUK 1946.1.18.72), in preservation, showing: (A) head lateral left view, (B) head dorsal view, (C) head ventral view, (D) head lateral right view.