Boiga stoliczkae Wall 1909
Creators: name: Weng, Shiyang
name: Yang, Dian-Cheng
name: Wei, Cong
name: Li, Peng
name: Cui, Zhangbo
name: Jiang, ZhiHao
name: Huang, Song
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Squamata
Colubridae
Boiga
Boiga stoliczkae

description: Boiga stoliczkae Wall, 1909
Materials
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: sex: female; preparations: whole animal (EtOH); disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: GenBank: PP 431561; occurrenceID: 3CD0C420-5333-56B1-887B-97F32F48A29D; Taxon: scientificName: Boiga stoliczkae; nameAccordingTo: Ferdinand Stoliczka; order: Squamata; family: Colubridae; genus: Boiga; taxonRank: species; Location: higherGeography: West China; country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Tibet; county: Gyirong; locality: Rexo Village; verbatimLocality: Gyirong County, Tibet, China; verbatimElevation: 1958 m; Identification: identifiedBy: Shiyang Weng; dateIdentified: 31 August 2023; Event: eventTime: 2023; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject
Description
An adult female (Figs 1, 2), indicated by the absence of hemipenis. Body slender, total length 1117 mm (SVL 896 mm and TAL 221 mm); tail long, TAL / SVL 24.7 %. Head nearly trapezoidal, distinct from neck, dorsally covered with large head scales, head length 24.39 mm; head width 14.71 mm; eye diameter 3.90 mm.
Rostral subtriangular in frontal view, visible from above. Internasals paired, nearly trapezoidal, narrowing anteriorly. Prefrontals paired, more or less quadrangular, wider than long, in contact with loreal. Frontal shield-shaped, nearly straight anteriorly, pointed backwards, slightly longer than wide, supraocular 1 / 1, much longer than wide; parietals paired. Nasals nearly pentagonal, completely divided by nostril, lower and upper sutures clearly visible, nostril central. Loreal 1 / 1, nearly square; pre-ocular 1 / 1, much higher than wide; postocular 2 / 2, upper one slightly larger than lower one. Temporals 2 + 2 + 3, two anterior temporals elongated, the upper one smaller in contact with parietal, the lower one in contact with sixth and seventh supralabial; two middle temporals, smaller than anterior temporal; the lower anterior temporal fused with the middle temporal on the right; three posterior temporals. Supralabials 8 / 8, 1–2 contacting the nasal, 3 th to 5 th contacting the orbit, 7 th largest. One mental. Infralabials 11 / 13, the first pair in contact blocking the mental from contacting an anterior pair of chin shields.
Two pairs of chin shields. First five on left and first six on right infralabials touching the first pair of chin shields.
Dorsal scales smooth, rhomboid, imbricate, in 23–21 – 15 longitudinal rows. Vertebral hexagonal and distinctly enlarged, outermost dorsal scale row on both sides smooth and not enlarged. Ventrals 228 (+ 3 preventrals), subcaudals 98 paired, ventral and subcaudal scales strongly angulated laterally, cloacal plate entire.
Colouration in life. The colouration of the specimen's dorsal surface in life is dark brown, with a black stripe distributed almost evenly across the back. The anterior half of the ventral is yellow, while the posterior half gradually becomes white, the edge of the abdomen having small black dots that appear to form a black dotted line when viewed as a whole. The sides of the head have one lateral postorbital stripe, which extends from the last supralabial to the postocular. The pupil is elliptical and black and the sclera is light brown.
Colouration in alcohol. The colouration remains similar to the living specimen, but he anterior half of the ventral gradually turning grayish-white, and the black stripe on the dorsal fades to a yellowish-brown hue.
Diagnosis
B. stoliczkae can be differentiated from its congeners by the following combination of morphological characters: 1) mid-dorsum scale rows 21, all dorsal scales smooth; 2) tail length comparatively long, TaL / SVL 24.7-30.5 %; 3) supraocular 1; 4) preocular 1; 5) postocular 2; 6) supralabials 8, 1–2 contacting the nasal, 3 th to 5 th contacting the orbit, 7 th largest; 7) infralabials 10-14; 8) Ventrals 222-247; 9) subcaudal paired, 93-120; 10) cloacal plate entire.
Distribution
B. stoliczkae is currently known from central Nepal and south of Tibet, China (Fig. 3) through Bhutan to north-eastern India.
Ecology
B. stoliczkae is mostly semi-arboreal, crepuscular and nocturnal. It is known to inhabit open forest types, agricultural land and human habitations. In our case, the species was found in a road drainage ditch adjacent to the forest edge (Fig. 4).
description: Published as part of Weng, Shiyang, Yang, Dian-Cheng, Wei, Cong, Li, Peng, Cui, Zhangbo, Jiang, ZhiHao & Huang, Song, 2024, A new record and a novel morph description of Boiga stoliczkae (Squamata, Colubridae) from China, pp. e 123669 in Biodiversity Data Journal 12 on page e123669, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.12.e123669