A new species of death adder (Acanthophis: Serpentes: Elapidae) from north-western Australia

Abstract

Australian death adders (genus Acanthophis) are highly venomous snakes with conservative morphology and sit-and-wait predatory habits, with only moderate taxonomic diversity that nevertheless remains incompletely understood. Analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences and morphological characteristics of death adders in northern Australia reveal the existence of a new species from the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, which we describe as Acanthophis cryptamydros sp. nov. Although populations from the Kimberley were previously considered conspecific with Northern Territory death adders of the A. rugosus complex, our mtDNA analysis indicates that its closest relatives are desert death adders, A. pyrrhus. We found that A. cryptamydros sp. nov. is distinct in both mtDNA and nDNA analysis, and possesses multiple morphological characteristics that allow it to be distinguished from all other Acanthophis species. This study further supports the Kimberley region as an area with high endemic biodiversity.

Tropical specialist vs. climate generalist: Diversification and demographic history of sister species of Carlia skinks from northwestern Australia

“…The Kimberley is a geologically and topographically complex region (Braby, ; Pepper & Scott Keogh, ) and experienced strong fluctuations in aridity with changing strength of the Asian Monsoon especially in the early Holocene (Bowman et al., ; Field, McGowan, Moss, & Marx, ; Reeves et al., ). Recent surveys and studies of the previously poorly known fauna have highlighted high endemism in the mesic west Kimberley (Andersen, Bocciarelli, Fairman, & Radford, ; Köhler, ; Maddock, Ellis, Doughty, Smith, & Wüster, ; Morgan, Allen, Pusey, & Burrows, ), and deep phylogeographic structure in Kimberley populations of widespread taxa (Catullo & Scott Keogh, ; Moritz et al., ; Oliver, Adams, & Doughty, ; Potter, Eldridge, Taggart, & Cooper, ; Smith, Harmon, Shoo, & Melville, ; Westerman et al., ).…”

A new species of bandy-bandy (Vermicella: Serpentes: Elapidae) from the Weipa region, Cape York, Australia

“…Meristic measurements of each specimen and photographed individuals included the number of black bands/ white bands on the body and tail. Scalation characteristics of the two specimens were recorded following Keogh & Smith (1996) with definitions from Cogger (2014) and Maddock et al (2015) (Table 1). For head measurements the right side of the animal was used.…”

“…Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from muscle tissue for 23 Vermicella samples (Appendix I) using Isolate II Genomic DNA kit (Bioline, Australia) following standard kit directions. Small subunit ribosomal RNA (16S) and NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase chain 4 (ND4) were targeted as they are the most widely sampled genes for elapid snakes (Keogh et al 1998;Maddock et al 2015;Sanders et al 2008Sanders et al , 2012Ukuwela et al 2013). The extracted DNA was isolated and amplified using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a TaKaRa Ex Taq kit (Takara, USA), with a total volume of 25 mL.…”

An evaluation of the nomina for death adders (Acanthophis Daudin, 1803) proposed by Wells & Wellington (1985), and confirmation of A. cryptamydros Maddock et al., 2015 as the valid name for the Kimberley death adder

“…None of the four descriptions provided any morphological or other descriptive information associated with the designated holotype specimens, and largely referred to the published works of other authors for diagnoses and descriptions, including specimen images. While these descriptions were initially ignored in the subsequent literature, the confirmation of considerable cryptic diversity in death adders (Aplin & Donnellan 1999;Wüster et al 2005;Maddock et al 2015) brought these names back into contention as potentially available nomina. This has resulted in taxonomic confusion and nomenclatural instability, particularly in the case of northern Australian Acanthophis, which had long been considered part of A. praelongus Ramsay, 1877(e.g., Storr 1981Cogger 1983Cogger , 2000Ehmann 1992;Storr et al 2002;Wilson & Swan 2003.…”