A New Species of Calamaria (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae) from Western Jiangxi Province, China

Abstract

Here, we describe a new species Calamaria jinggangensis sp. nov. from Mt. Jinggang, Jiangxi Province, China. It can be distinguished from the sister species of C. arcana by these unique characters: posterior chin shields almost whole meeting in midline, dorsal scales reduced to 6 rows above last subcaudal at tail; lower maxillary teeth, higher palatine teeth and so on. The uncorrected p-distances of cyt b sequences between this new species and other 13 Calamaria included in the study is 6.46 – 19.93%. We also studied a female specimen from Mt. Wuyi as C. arcana new record in Fujian Province. In addition, it provided a diagnostic key to all the species of Calamaria from China.