Huaping Wolf Snake

Lycodon cathaya, the Huaping wolf snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. It is a slender species with a total length of 562.5–910.6 mm (22.15–35.85 in), a snout–vent length of 451.4–730.1 mm (17.77–28.74 in), and tail length of 111.1–180.5 mm (4.37–7.11 in). The upper side of the head is brownish-black with a grey-tinged rose collar band, while the underside of the head is mostly whitish. The upper side of the body is brownish-black with grey-tinged rose bands that divide the brownish-black ground colour into elliptical patches. The middle of the underside has irregular brownish-black splotches making an unbroken strip along the underside with two greyish-white lines along its sides. The Huaping wolf snake can be distinguished from other wolf snakes by a combination of its scalation and coloration.

Endemic to China, it was formally described by the Chinese herpetologist Jian Wang and his colleagues in 2020. It is known only from the Huaping Nature Reserve in Guangxi, but may also occur in southwestern Hunan and southeastern Guizhou. The habitat around the Huaping Nature Reserve is mountainous, with montane evergreen broad-leaved forest or mixed forest at elevations of 850–1,000 m (2,790–3,280 ft). Although the Huaping Nature Reserve is well-protected, further studies are needed outside the reserve to better inform conservation actions for the species.

Taxonomy

Lycodon cathaya was formally described by the Chinese herpetologist Jian Wang and his colleagues in 2020 based on an adult male specimen collected from the Huaping Nature Reserve in Guangxi, China, in July 2016. The specific epithet cathaya is named after the monotypic pine tree genus Cathaya; the only species in the genus, C. argyrophylla is a relict that was discovered in the Huaping Nature Reserve. The authors of the study describing L. cathaya recommended the English common name 'Huaping wolf snake' and the Mandarin common name 花坪白环蛇 (Hua Ping Bai Huan She), meaning "Huaping white-ringed snake".

The Huaping wolf snake is one of over 70 species in the wolf snake genus Lycodon in the family Colubridae. The 2020 study describing the species studied its relationship with 18 other Lycodon species and found the species to be sister (most closely related) to a clade formed by L. namdongensis and L. futsingensis. A 2022 study sampling over 40 species in the genus found L. cathaya to be sister to a clade formed by L. futsingensis, L. truongi, L. chapaensis, and L. septentrionalis.

Description

The Huaping wolf snake is a slender species with a total length of 562.5–910.6 mm (22.15–35.85 in), a snout–vent length of 451.4–730.1 mm (17.77–28.74 in), and tail length of 111.1–180.5 mm (4.374–7.106 in). In the holotype, the upper side of the head is brownish-black, with an evident grey-tinged rose collar band. The underside of the head is whitish, with brownish-black splotches on the mental scales, frontal chin shields, and first to third supralabial scales. The upper side of the body is brownish-black with grey-tinged rose bands, 31–35 on the body and 13–16 on the tail. The first two bands after the collar band are incomplete. Each band is one to two scales wide at its narrowest and three to four scales at its widest. These bands divide the brownish-black ground colour into elliptical patches. There is a brownish-black blotch on the sides below each band. The middle of the underside has irregular brownish-black splotches making an unbroken strip along the underside with two greyish-white lines along its sides. The subcaudal scales are mostly light brown.