Asiatic Herpetological Research

April 1990

Vol. 3, pp. 64-66

Four Remarkable Reptiles from South China Sea Islands,Hong Kong Territory
JAMES LAZELL AND WENHUA LU
1l

Key Words:

1

The Conservation Agency, Rhode Island 02835, USA

Reptilia, Squamata, Hong Kong, distribution.

FIG. 1.

Hong Kong and nearby islands.
Pokfulam, Hong Kong Island.

1.

Hei Ling Chau.

Introduction

2.

Shek Kwu Chau.

islands, presumably supporting amphibians

and/or reptiles, within the Hong Kong
Territory. This is estimated to be about
three percent of the total number ofcontinental shelf islands in the South China

Sea between Taiwan and Hainan Dao.
Nevertheless, the number of endemic andisolated

species documented from thecomprehensive work ofterritory in theKarsen, Lau, and Bogadek (1986) is high:High Westfour endemics and at least fifteen widely
disjunct populations.

There are at least one hundred vegetated3.

Here we add two

species not previously recorded (bothwidely disjunct) and new records of species

poorlydocumented before(Fig.

1).

Voucher specimens are in the Museum of
Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard
University.

Dibamuscf.

bourreti(White-tailed Two-footed Lizard)

A single specimen, MCZ 172041, was1

Asiatic Herpetological Research

April 1990

collected by Anthony Bogadek,
1987, on Hei Ling Chau ca.

1Vol. 3, p. 65

April10 km—

southwest of Victoria, Hong Kong arange extension northeast for the genus,
and family Dibamidae of ca. 800 km(Lazell 1988).

The specimen, a 177 mm SVL male,was sent to Allen Greer, AustralianMuseum, Sydney, for identification. He
believed the specimen was "probably"
Dibamus bourreti (in litt., 9 May 1988).
However, we note the following sharp

FIG. 2. Dibamus

sp. from Hei Ling Chau. TheR, lacks a suture from lip to nostril. A

distinctions from D. bourreti as diagnosed

rostral,and described by Greer (1985: 148): thelabial suture, L, is present.

rostral suture is not complete, not present

from lip to nostril but only posterior to thenostril. There is a prominent labial suture.
There are no preanal or tibial pores.
Dibamis bourreti is diagnosed as having acomplete rostral suture, no labial suture,and four preanal pores on each side, evenin a female
the highest count in Dibamus.

—This specimen,MCZ 172041, has 23

scale rows at midbody, six scales

frontinghindlimb where Greer (1985:120)
shows D. novaeguinae having four, andsix rows of preanal scales where Greer(1985:120) shows D. novaeguinae having
theThe hindlimb is 2.7% of SVL. The
tail is 22.6% of SVL. In life thisspecimen
was lilac of lavender-gray shading to buff

(MCZ 173290).
Lance (1976) did not recognize"Typhlina" or "Ramphotyphops" andneither do we. The putative distinction
from Typhops is entirely in male genetalia(McDowell 1974). Because females areofindistinguishable,recognition
or"Typhlina""Ramphotyphops" directlyviolates the principles of systematiczoology (Mayr et al. 1953) and theprinciples of animal taxonomy (Simpson1961).

three.

on the head and chalk-white on the tail. It
is much paler and lesscontrastingly marked
than the Guangxi D. bourreti illustrated byTian and Jiang (1986). See Figure 2.

This is the only species of Typhlops inChina with 18 scale rows. It is very
slender, the head spatulate. MCZ 173290
is 155.5 mm SVL with a 2.5 mm tail. The
dorsum is wood brown shading to buff on
the head. The chin is near-white; this color

extends posteriorly for 10 scales onto thethroat

Typhlops albiceps

The tail tip is near- white;

this color

extends anteroventrally on all 10 subcaudal

This

tiny

snake,

apparently

rare

scales and 4 rows anterior to the vent.

range, was known from
Hong Kong Island only on the basis of two
specimens collected in 1959 and 1966
(Karlsen et al. 1986), now in the British

throughout

Museumits(Natural1954.1.13.4 andHistory):

BMNH

BMNH

1983.946,

It was rediscovered 27May1988 at High West, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Island by Sandra Brown (Macklin 1988).

respectively.

The species appears reasonably common atthis site. Voucher
specimens are at the St.
Louis School, West Point, Hong Kong(curated by Anthony Bogadek) and at MCZ

Dendrelaphis pictus(Painted Bronze Back Snake)This elegant snake is known from
Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan (Hu etal.
1980), and from Hong Kong on thebasis of a single report (Wall 1903). Oneof us (Lazell) has searched bothand MCZ for this specimen with nosuccess. Peaker (1987) criticized Karsen etBMNH(1986) for including this species in theHong Kong fauna. Deletion would haveal.

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 3, p. 66

TABLE

1.

Some

Ahaetulla prasina.

scale counts

for Chinese

April 1990