Popeia inornata, a New Species of Pitviper from West Malaysia (Squamata: Viperidae: Crotalinae)

Kate L. Sanders, Anita Malhotra, Andreas Gumprecht, Roger S. Thorpe, Ulrich Kuch

Abstract


We describe a new species of green pitviper from Southeast Asia. This species is a member of the genus Popeia (formerly known as the Trimeresurus popeiorum complex), and is distinguished from congeners by a combination of morphological and molecular characters. These include the absence of a red lateral stripe in adult males, low ventral scale counts and green eye coloration in males and females, and five fixed nucleotide differences in a 720 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. The new species is known only from the Cameron Highlands range in West Malaysia, where it was found between 1200 – 2000 m above sea level in or near undisturbed evergreen rainforest.

Keywords


Reptilia; Squamata; Serpentes; Viperidae; Crotalinae; Popeia inornata species nov.; Trimeresurus popeiorum; Cameron Highlands; Pahang; Malaysia; Southeast Asia

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2004-11-3-163-176

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