ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e124677

First description of the female of Achalinus sheni (Serpentes: Xenodermidae), with expanded description of this species

Yihan Ma^‡, jiayu Liu^‡, Hui Li^‡, Lin Zhou^§, Yuhao Xu^|, Deyong Peng^¶, Zhiqiang Zhang^§, Xiao-Yang Mo^#

‡ Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China§ Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China| Qinghai University, Qinghai, China¶ Jintong Mountain Nature Reserve Management Office, Hunan Nanshan National Park Administration, Shaoyang, China# Hunan Normal University, changsha, China

Corresponding author: Zhiqiang Zhang ( csfuzzq@126.com )

Corresponding author: Xiao-Yang Mo ( moxiaoyang@hunnu.edu.cn )

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.

Citation: Ma Y, Liu jiayu, Li H, Zhou L, Xu Y, Peng D, Zhang Z, Mo X-Y (2024) First description of the female of Achalinus sheni (Serpentes: Xenodermidae), with expanded description of this species. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e124677

Abstract

Achalinus sheni Ma, Xu, Qi, Wang, Tang, Huang & Jiang, 2023 was originally described based on only male specimens from Lianyuan City and Nanyue District, Hunan, China. So far, no information on the females of this species is available. After molecular systematics and morphological characters of recently collected specimens from Xinshao County, Hunan, several specimens (3 males and 1 female) were identified as this species. Therefore, we provided supplementary descriptions of the female characteristics of this species in this study. Meanwhile, we extended the description of this species.

Keywords

Morphology, Phylogenetics, Xinshao County