Meet the new snake species found only in Vietnam
A new snake species has just been recognized by scientists, and it is found only on a small island in Khánh Hòa province, Vietnam.
Scientists from Vietnam and Russia, including Nguyễn Văn Tân, MSc (Duy Tân University in Đà Nẵng, central Vietnam), and Nikolay A. Poyarkov and Andrey M. Bragin (both of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia), discovered and described a new snake species found on Hòn Tre, a small island in Khánh Hòa province on Vietnam's south-central coast.
The researchers named the new species Colubroelaps adleri, with the Vietnamese common name "rắn hổ nước Adler" (Adler's Colubroelaps snake). The name honors Professor Kraig Adler, PhD, of Cornell University (U.S.) for his contributions to the study of amphibians and reptiles worldwide and in Asia in particular, including Vietnam.
Close-up of the head, body, belly and tail of Adler's snake (Photo: Herpetozoa).
Adler's snake belongs to the genus Colubroelaps in the family Colubridae. Until now, Colubroelaps was a monotypic genus, with a single representative, Colubroelaps nguyenvansangi (known in Vietnamese as "rắn hổ nước Nguyễn Văn Sáng", or Nguyen Van Sang's snake). That species was named in honor of Dr. Nguyễn Văn Sáng of the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources in Hà Nội for his contributions to research on reptiles and amphibians in Vietnam.
The newly discovered Adler's snake differs from Nguyen Van Sang's snake in several ways: it is smaller, has a shorter tail, and differs in the number of dorsal, ventral and subcaudal scales…
Adler's snake has a light-brown back with a narrow, broken black stripe running along the spine, dark-gray flanks and a uniformly off-white belly. Its head is black, with the rostral, nasal, prefrontal, preocular and loreal scales light brown with dark-brown spots.
Adler's snake is a colubrid and is not venomous.
Comparison of Adler's snake (top) and Nguyen Van Sang's snake (bottom) (Photo: Herpetozoa).
The scientists consider Adler's snake to be endemic, living only on Hòn Tre island in Khánh Hòa province, at an elevation of 30 meters above sea level.
Because Adler's snake is very rarely encountered, only a single specimen has been collected for study, and it is threatened by tourism development on Hòn Tre, the scientists have proposed listing it as "Endangered" under the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The description of Adler's snake was published in Herpetozoa, a scientific journal specializing in reptiles and amphibians. The journal publishes research, papers and reports on the biology, taxonomy, ecology and conservation status of reptiles and amphibians around the world.
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