Viperidae - Crotalinae - 2007 Publications
 

Description of Tropidolaemus laticinctus
Kuch et al. (2007), as part of a general revision of the genus Tropidolaemus, describe a new species from Sulawesi, Tropidolaemus laticinctus. The new species differs radically from other Tropidolaemus in having a strongly ornate head pattern consisting of black-bordered brown spots on a lighter background, and a body pattern consisting of light-edged reddish-brown  crossbands with green interspaces. Unlike in other Tropidolaemus, this species does not appear to display sexual dimorphism or pronounced ontogenetic variation in pattern. The authors also treat the previously documented green Tropidolaemus populations from eastern Indonesia and the Philippines as specifically distinct from T. wagleri, and refer to them as the T. subannulatus complex. That complex and the new species occur sympatrically in the northern half of the island of Sulawesi.

Panamint rattlesnake a separate species, Crotalus stephensi

Douglas et al. (2007) use mitochondrial DNA sequence and nuclear intron sequences to investigate the phylogeography  of the rattlesnake Crotalus mitchellii. The Panamint rattlesnake, C.m. stephensi, was found to be the sister taxon of the mainland taxa C. m. mitchellii and C. m. pyrrhus, and to differ consistently by a single nuclear polymorphism in the nuclear sequences. The congruence between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA led Douglas et al. to elevate the Panamint rattlesnake to species status, Crotalus stephensi.

Phylogenetic position of Protobothrops kaulbacki, status of Zhaoermia and Triceratolepidophis

Guo et al. (2007) use mtDNA sequence analysis and morphological data to investigate the status of the poorly-known pitviper Protobothrops kaulbacki. The DNA data show P. kaulbacki to be the sister taxon of Triceratolepidophis sieversorum (see here), rendering Protobothrops paraphyletic if Triceratolepidophis and Zhaoermia are excluded. The morphological peculiarities of the latter two genera are interpreted as autapomorphies, and the authors emphasise the strong synapomorphic similarities between the various Protobothrops species, Triceratolepidophis and Zhaoermia, and suggest that synonymising and Triceratolepidophis and Zhaoermia with Protobothrops would be the best way of reflecting the data presented in the study.

Revision of Tropidolaemus

Vogel et al. (2007) analyse the systematics of the Tropidolaemus wagleri complex using multivariate morphometric analyses of external morphology. Their data reveal the presence of three distinct taxa within the complex, which they regard as different species: Tropidolaemus wagleri from Sumatra, the Malayan Peninsula and Bangka Island (the best known form of the complex, including the highly contrasting black and green females most often depicted in the literature), T. subannulatus from Borneo, Sulawesi and most of the Philippines, and T. philippensis from southern and western Mindanao Island, Philippines. The authors note considerable variation within T. subannulatus and consider this to be a species complex.