A NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS Calamaria BOIE, 1827 FROM THE HIGHLANDS OF THE LANGBIAN PLATEAU, SOUTHERN VIETNAM (SQUAMATA: COLUBRIDAE)

A new species of reed snake, genus Calamaria, is described from the Langbian Plateau in Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa provinces, Vietnam based on a morphological examination of nine specimens. Calamaria strigiventris sp. nov. is distinguished from all congeners by a combination of the following morphological characters: 9 - 11 modified maxillary teeth; rostral wider than high; prefrontal shorter than frontal, touching first two supralabials; mental separated from anterior chin shields; dorsal scales in 13 - 13 - 13 rows, all smooth; single preocular, single postocular; four supralabials, the 2nd and 3rd in contact with the eye; eye diameter smaller than eye-mouth distance; five infralabials; six scales surrounding the paraparietal; prefrontal touching 1st - 2nd supralabials; ventral scales 130 - 183; subcaudal scales 20 - 33, paired; tail relatively short (8.4 - 17.9% of the total length), nearly as thick as body, slowly tapering anteriorly, then abruptly tapering to the tip; dorsal scales reducing to four rows above 17th subcaudal on tail; dorsum uniform gray-brown, venter bright yellow with three interrupted longitudinal black stripes, one wide in the middle and a pair on the lateral edges of the ventrals. The new species is currently known only from two localities on the Langbian Plateau and was recorded from montane elfin evergreen tropical forests of Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa provinces at elevations from 1500 to 2000 m a.s.l. We suggest the new species should be considered as Vulnerable (VU) following the IUCN's Red List categories.