Scientists from China have discovered a new species of pit viper in Yingjiang County in the southwestern province of Yunnan, close to the China-Myanmar border.
The dark brown-grey snake, endemic to the tropical montane rainforest typical of the region, has been named Ovophis jenkinsi.
The research team, led by Xian-Chun Qiu from Shenyang Normal University, published their findings in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
China's Yingjiang County is a biodiversity hotspot, and the recent discovery of Ovophis jenkinsi in the region's tropical montane rainforest is the latest in a line of newly described reptile species found in the area in the past few years.
The new species is a type of mountain pit viper (Ovophis), a group of medium-sized venomous snakes mainly found in eastern Asia, the southern Himalayas and the northern Indochina Peninsula.
Ovophis jenkinsi is generally dark brownish-grey, though some individuals can be deep orange-brown, say the scientists. It has dark brown patches on its back, scattered with small white spots on the dorsal surface of the tail.
“It is usually slow-moving but shows great aggression when disturbed,” the researchers explain after observing the snake’s behaviour.
“When threatened, these snakes inflate their bodies to make themselves appear larger and strike quickly.”
Despite being newly described and endemic to the southwestern corner of China, the species is not an uncommon sight, according to the experts: “It is not difficult to find this species in the wild, they are active mainly in the autumn and prefer cool, humid, and even rainy nights, probably to avoid competition with other snakes."
Based on a molecular phylogenetic analysis and morphological comparison, the team determine the snake to be a new species.
“We checked specimens of the [snake] genus Ovophis collected by Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Forestry University in Yingjiang, Yunnan in 2008, and found that these specimens were different from all known similar species. We collected some new specimens from Yingjiang in 2023 and finally determined that this population represents a new species!” the researchers explain.
The new species has been named Ovophis jenkinsi after Robert “Hank” William Garfield Jenkins AM (September 1947−September 2023), a herpetologist who was involved with important snake census, conservation and management projects in China and other Asian countries.
The scientists say they are currently unsure of the feeding habit of Ovophis jenkinsi in the wild. There are no records to date of humans being bitten by this species.
“We will be collecting more information about O. jenkinsi in the future, including their appearance, distribution and habits, to improve our understanding of this species,” the researchers conclude in their study paper.
Main image: Ovophis jenkinsi from Yingjiang, Yunnan, China. Credit: Xian-Chun Qiu
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