A new species of Plagiopholis Boulenger, 1893 (Serpentes, Pseudoxenodontinae) from southeastern Yunnan, China

A new species of the genus Plagiopholis is described based on a single specimen collected from Wenshan Prefecture, southeastern Yunnan Province, China. Compared with other species of the genus, it has a unique combination of morphological characteristics: one loreal, six supralabials, 2+2 temporals, smooth anterior dorsal scales and feebly keeled posterior dorsal scales, 116 ventral scales, 32 subcaudal scales, some subcaudal scales being paired and some being unpaired, an inverted “V” shaped nuchal blotch, and a yellowish white ventral surface with many small dark spots. Phylogenetically, the new species formed a distinct clade in the genus and diverged from other species of the genus by 8.6%–16.6% in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. This study increases the number of valid species of the genus Plagiopholis to eight.