Amphiesma kerinciense David & Das 2003
Creators: name: David, Patrick
name: Vogel, Gernot
name: Rooijen, Johan Van
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Colubridae
Amphiesma
Amphiesma kerinciense

description: Amphiesma kerinciense David & Das, 2003
(Fig. 7)
Amphiesma inas (nec Tropidonotus inas Laidlaw, 1901, a valid species).—Mumpuni 2001: 38—David & Das 2003: 417 (citation of the specimen described by Mumpuni 2001).
Amphiesma kerinciense David & Das, 2003: 414, 415: Fig. 1–4.— Type locality. Sungai Jalnei Dalam, at base of Gunung Tugu (or Tujuh) [= Mt. Tugu or Tujuh] (01°42'59.0"S- 101°21'43.1"E), Gunung Kerinci [Mt. Kerinci], Sumatera Barat Province, Sumatra Island, Indonesia.— Holotype. ZRC 2.3521, adult female; collected by Darren Yeo and Heok Hui Tan, 12 June 1996.
Amphiesma kerinciense.—Das 2010: 332.
Material examined (2 specimens). Indonesia. Sumatra. Lampung Province. MZB 2186, Kubu Perahu, Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, near Lake Ranau. Sumatera Barat Province. ZRC 2.3521 (holotype), Sungai Jalnei Dalam, at base of Gunung Tugu (or Tujuh) (01°42'59.0"S- 101°21'43.1"E), Gunung Kerinci.
Taxonomic comments. Amphiesma kerinciense was described from a single, female specimen. Mumpuni (2001) briefly described a specimen of Amphiesma from the southern Barisan Range (MZB 2186) which she identified as A. inas. After examination, this specimen proved to be referable to Amphiesma kerinciense. We here slightly expand the description of this species on the basis of the second known specimen and the first known male.
Amphiesma kerinciense seems to be allied to the Indo-Malayan Amphiesma inas but its affinities may also lie with Amphiesma sanguineum (Smedley, 1932).
Diagnosis. A species of the genus Amphiesma characterized by the combination of (1) a stout body; (2) nostrils directed laterally; (3) 20–21 maxillary teeth, gradually enlarged, the last 2 teeth distinctly enlarged; (4) 19 dorsal scale rows at midbody, strongly keeled on upper rows, many of which are distinctly notched posteriorly; scales of first dorsal row enlarged, feebly keeled; (5) dorsal pattern made of a broad, darker vertebral band, with or without irregularly placed dark scales producing faint and irregular, discontinuous crossbars, edged on each side by a faint pale ochre brown dorsolateral stripe, widening to produce three or four irregular blotches on the neck; (6) posterior supralabial slightly and irregularly paler, without definite blotches; (7) neck uniform or with a narrow pale streak; (8) venter pale with a row of well defined dark brown blotches at 3/4 of their width; (9) eye large, about 2.0 times the distance between the lower margins of eye and of lip; (10) 138–140 VEN; (11) internasals broadly truncated anteriorly, (12) 8 or 9 supralabials; and (13) 1 anterior temporal.
Variation (based on 2 specimens). Body stout, cylindrical, elongate; head rather elongate, oval, depressed in front of the eye, barely distinct from neck; snout long, blunt when viewed from above, rectangular in lateral view, amounting for about 26.0 % of HL or 1.6 times as long as diameter of eye in two specimens; nostrils large, crescentic, directed laterally and piercing in the middle of the nasal; eye large, about 2.0 times the distance between the lower margin of eye and the lower edge of lip, with a round pupil; tail long, cylindrical and tapering.
The maximal total length known is 516 mm (SVL 358 mm; TaL 158 mm; specimen ZRC 2.3521; female, holotype). The SVL of the second available specimen, a juvenile male with an incomplete tail, is only 277 mm. Ratio TaL / TL: 0.308 in the female specimen.
Dentition. Maxillary teeth 20–21, gradually enlarged, the last 2 teeth distinctly enlarged.
Body scalation. DSR: 19–19–17 scale rows; dorsal scales rhomboedric, usually distinctly notched at their posterior extremity, strongly keeled with a narrow, sharp keel; dorsal scales, more strongly in the posterior half of the body on all rows; scales of 1st DSR feebly keeled or nearly smooth.
VEN: 138–140 (plus 0 or 2 preventrals); SC: 89 in the adult female, all paired; ratio VEN / SC: 1.56; anal plate divided.
Position of the reduction to 6 scale rows around the tail at the level of 8th SC. Ratio length of the portion of tail with 4 dorsal scale rows / length of the portion of tail with 6 dorsal scale rows: 1.45.
Head scalation. Rostral trapezoidal wider than high, visible from above; nasals subrectangular, elongate, vertically divided on their lower half, with the posterior part larger and higher than anterior one; internasals subtriangular, rather small, in broad contact, about 1.0 to 1.2 times as long as wide, abruptly truncated anteriorly with anterior margin about 0.5-0.6 times the width of the posterior margin; 2 wide, subrectangular prefrontals, 1.6– 1.8 times as long as internasals; frontal hexagonal, shield-like with apex directed posteriorly, rather small, 1.4 times longer than wide, 1.9–2.0 times as long as prefrontal; 1 supraocular on each side, longer than wide, about 0.3 times as wide as frontal, narrower than internasals; two large parietals, 1.2–1.4 times longer than frontal, in contact for a length 1.1 times as great as the frontal length; 1 small, rectangular loreal scale, 0.8 times as high as long, in broad contact with the nasal; 8 or 9 SL, 2nd–8th or 9th longer than high; 1st and 2nd SL small and short, in contact with nasal; 2nd and 3rd SL in contact with the loreal; 4th–5th or 4th–6th SL entering orbit; 6th and 7th SL or 7th and 8th SL largest; 1 relatively large or 2 small preoculars on each side; 3 postoculars, the upper one largest; 0 or 1 subocular; 1 anterior temporal, narrow and elongate, with complete temporal formulas as 1 + 1 + 2 or 1 + 2 + 2; 10 or 11 infralabials, first pair in contact each with other, 1st–4th or 1st–5th IL in contact with anterior chin shields, 6th IL largest; mental scale small; posterior chin shields about 1.2 times longer than anterior ones.
Coloration and pattern in alcohol. Background colour of sides, up to 4th dorsal scale row row, dark reddish grey-brown, due to an intricate speckling of dark reddish-brown pigments on a pale greyish-ochre background, with 1st–2nd lower scale rows rather purple greyish-brown, slightly iridescent, with ventroposterior extremities of scales of the 1st row dark brown; widely scattered small blackish-brown spots on 2nd, 3rd and 4th dorsal rows; these dark brown spots produce faint and irregular, discontinuous crossbars, more visible on the posterior part of the body. A broad blackish-brown vertebral band on 5th–9th scale rows and the vertebral row, with indistinct irregular black crossbars. A dorsolateral stripe extending from the neck to the tail on top of 5th and the whole of 6th scale row, well defined and greyish-pink on the neck and foremost part of the body (up to 6th VEN), becoming discontinuous and broken into 4 or 5 irregular and diffuse blotches more or less connected, then changing into a diffuse, ill defined pale ochre-brown stripe. The tail is blackish-brown above, greyish-ochre on the upper part of the side in the extension of the dorsolateral band of the body, with a blackish-brown band on its lower side and extremities of subcaudals, divided into two equal parts by a narrow greyish-purple line in the extension of the colour present on 1st and 2nd scale rows of the body.
Head dark reddish grey-brown above with ochre vermiculations, turning into blackish-brown on its posterior part; a fine speckling with purple greyish-brown on temporals; two small faint yellowish-white spots on the parietals and a very faint whitish-brown sagittal line just behind the parietals. Anterior supralabials are ochre brown, with brown speckling and edged with dark brown on their posterior part. Posterior supralabials light ivory cream; posterior part of 6th SL blackish-brown; 7th SL with a curved dark brown marking in the posterior part of its centre and with its posterior upper corner dark brown; 8th SL divided into a lower anterior part ivory cream and an upper posterior part dark reddish grey-brown, these two parts being separated by an oblique blackish-brown streak connecting the upper tip of the 7th SL to the lip edge at the junction of 8th and 9th SL; 9th SL dark reddish greybrown, with its lower part blackish-brown and its upper part ochre brown, narrowly bordered with blackish-brown above. An ill defined and narrow postocular streak, pale ochre brown narrowly edged below with blackish-brown, extending from the upper preocular to 9th SL through the anterior temporal and the upper tip of 8th SL. Behind the 9th SL, a narrow, irregular pale postocular streak, bent upwards; on the side of the neck, a very thin, greyish-pink stripe, connected both to the postocular stripe and the dorsolateral stripe. Throat, chin and ventral part of the neck ivory cream, uniform in their middle, with some dark brown speckling on the outer parts of the throat and lower side of the neck; posterior margins of infralabials dark brown.
Venter uniformly ivory cream, with about 1/4th of the outer part of each scale purple greyish-brown as dorsal rows 1–2, becoming blackish-brown on the scale outer tip; a subrectangular, irregular blackish-brown spot between the purple greyish-brown and ivory parts; these spots become progressively larger backwards and are connected to the purple greyish-brown colour of the flank from about the 20th VEN onwards; before this point, the blackishbrown ventral spots are separated from the purple greyish-brown colour of the lower flank by a narrow ivory cream line, producing a thin and conspicuous but discontinuous series of dark brown spots at the bottom of the flanks; the ivory line is progressively replaced by the purple greyish-brown hue. Below, the tail is as the venter, bordered on each side by a blackish-brown stripe described above, with a middle line made of irregular and faint dark brown speckling.
Hemipenis. Unknown.
Sexual dimorphism. Unknown.
Distribution. Indonesia. Sumatra. Endemic to this island. Province of Sumatera Barat. Massif of Mt. Kerinci. Lampung Province. Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, near Lake Ranau.
Biology. The holotype of A. kerinciense was collected in a shallow hill stream, less than 30 cm deep, fast flowing in parts through an open, grassy area. The elevation was unfortunately not recorded. The clear water flowed over a substratum of stone and gravel. The snake was collected while it was feeding on tadpoles, possibly of the genus Huia, which it later regurgitated. Nothing else is known on the biology of this rare species.
description: Published as part of David, Patrick, Vogel, Gernot & Rooijen, Johan Van, 2013, On some taxonomically confused species of the genus Amphiesma Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854 related to Amphiesma khasiense (Boulenger, 1890) (Squamata, Natricidae), pp. 301-335 in Zootaxa 3694 (4) on pages 321-324, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3694.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/217543