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You are here: Home / Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021 / Two new Kukri Snake species (Colubridae: Oligodon) from the Nakhon Si Thammarat Mountain Range, and addition of O. ocellatus to the fauna of Thailand

Olivier S Pauwels, Kanokorn Thongyai, Pajapon Chantong, and Montri Sumontha (2021)

Two new Kukri Snake species (Colubridae: Oligodon) from the Nakhon Si Thammarat Mountain Range, and addition of O. ocellatus to the fauna of Thailand

Zootaxa, 4908(4):537-557.

We describe two new Kukri snakes of the genus Oligodon from the Nakhon Si Thammarat Mountain Range, southern peninsular Thailand. Oligodon phangan sp. nov., endemic to Pha-Ngan Island, Surat Thani Province, is characterized by a maximal known SVL of 369.1 mm; 12 maxillary teeth, the posterior three enlarged; 17-17-15 dorsal scale rows; 163-166 ventrals; 33-42 divided subcaudals; a single anal; dorsal color brown with a pair of discreet paravertebral and lateral stripes; no dorsal or supracaudal bands, blotches or crossbars; background color of belly pinkish-orange; underside of tail immaculate. Oligodon promsombuti sp. nov., whose type-locality is Khao Phanom Wang, Surat Thani Province, is also found in Trang Province, and is characterized by a maximal known SVL of 552.7 mm; 12 maxillary teeth, the posterior three enlarged; 17-17-15 dorsal scale rows; 177 ventrals; 40 divided subcaudals; a single anal; deeply forked hemipenes lacking spines; dorsal color blackish brown with nearly indistinct paravertebral stripes; no dorsal or supracaudal blotches or crossbars; background color of belly ivory, heavily speckled with subrectangular blackish blotches. We tentatively allocate both new species to the informal Oligodon-cyclurus-group. They are the 5 th and 6 th Oligodon species endemic to Thailand. We add Oligodon ocellatus, so far known only from Cambodia, southern Laos and southern Vietnam, to the Thai fauna, based on a specimen from Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani Province.
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DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4908.4.7