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urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:73abe0ce-d97c-5d7c-bee5-b8e6e6fe6a17

ARPHA Preprints

preprints

Pensoft Publishers

10.3897/arphapreprints.e75596

75596

Short Communication

Colubridae

Biogeography Phylogeny

China Tibet

New and highest record of the rare Szechwan ratsnake, Euprepiophis perlaceus (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Muge Co, Kangding, Garzê, China

Hofmann

Sylvia

s.hofmann@leibniz-zfmk.de https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0621-9049 1

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

Bonn

Germany

Corresponding author: Sylvia Hofmann (s.hofmann@leibniz-zfmk.de).

Academic editor:

2021

23 09 2021

1 588CC4DB-CAC3-5B57-8A9C-0A8FF3CE599C 22 09 2021 22 09 2021

Sylvia Hofmann

This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Little is known about the distribution, biology, and ecology of the rare, endemic Szechwan ratsnake. Here, molecular data of the species are provided from a habitat at 3370 m a.s.l., the so far highest record of this snake. Genetic analysis (mtDNA and nDNA) confirmed the identity of the specimen as E. perlaceus and its close relationship to E. mandarinus. P-distances are in the range known for Elaphids and Euprepiophis as interspecific.