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A revised taxonomy of Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny.

ABSTRACT: The Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas is the largest genus of the family Pareidae (formerly Pareatidae), and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. However, potential diversity remains poorly explored due to their highly conserved morphology and incomplete samples. Here, on basis of more extensive sampling, interspecific phylogenetic relationships of the genus Pareas were reconstructed using two mitochondrial fragments (cyt b and ND4) and two nuclear genes (c-mos and Rag1), and multivariate morphometrics conducted for external morphological data. Both Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses consistently showed that the genus Pareas was comprised of two distinct, monophyletic lineages with moderate to low support values. Based on evidences from molecular phylogeny and morphological data, cryptic diversity of this genus was uncovered and two new species were described. In additional, the validity of P. macularius is confirmed.

SUBMITTER: Wang P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7297803 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A revised taxonomy of Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny.

Wang Ping P Che Jing J Liu Qin Q Li Ke K Jin Jie Qiong JQ Jiang Ke K Shi Lei L Guo Peng P

ZooKeys 20200609

The Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas is the largest genus of the family Pareidae (formerly Pareatidae), and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. However, potential diversity remains poorly explored due to their highly conserved morphology and incomplete samples. Here, on basis of more extensive sampling, interspecific phylogenetic relationships of the genus Pareas were reconstructed using two mitochondrial fragments (cyt b and ND4) and two nuclear genes (c-mos and Rag1), and multi ...[more]

PMID: 32577082

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Project description:Slug-eating snakes of the subfamily Pareinae are an insufficiently studied group of snakes specialized in feeding on terrestrial mollusks. Currently Pareinae encompass three genera with 34 species distributed across the Oriental biogeographic region. Despite the recent significant progress in understanding of Pareinae diversity, the subfamily remains taxonomically challenging. Here we present an updated phylogeny of the subfamily with a comprehensive taxon sampling including 30 currently recognized Pareinae species and several previously unknown candidate species and lineages. Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA and nuDNA data supported the monophyly of the three genera Asthenodipsas, Aplopeltura, and Pareas. Within both Asthenodipsas and Pareas our analyses recovered deep differentiation with each genus being represented by two morphologically diagnosable clades, which we treat as subgenera. We further apply an integrative taxonomic approach, including analyses of molecular and morphological data, along with examination of available type materials, to address the longstanding taxonomic questions of the subgenus Pareas, and reveal the high level of hidden diversity of these snakes in Indochina. We restrict the distribution of P. carinatus to southern Southeast Asia, and recognize two subspecies within it, including one new subspecies proposed for the populations from Thailand and Myanmar. We further revalidate P. berdmorei, synonymize P. menglaensis with P. berdmorei, and recognize three subspecies within this taxon, including the new subspecies erected for the populations from Laos and Vietnam. Furthermore, we describe two new species of Pareas from Vietnam: one belonging to the P. carinatus group from southern Vietnam, and a new member of the P. nuchalis group from the central Vietnam. We provide new data on P. temporalis, and report on a significant range extension for P. nuchalis. Our phylogeny, along with molecular clock and ancestral area analyses, reveal a complex diversification pattern of Pareinae involving a high degree of sympatry of widespread and endemic species. Our analyses support the "upstream" colonization hypothesis and, thus, the Pareinae appears to have originated in Sundaland during the middle Eocene and then colonized mainland Asia in early Oligocene. Sundaland and Eastern Indochina appear to have played the key roles as the centers of Pareinae diversification. Our results reveal that both vicariance and dispersal are responsible for current distribution patterns of Pareinae, with tectonic movements, orogeny and paleoclimatic shifts being the probable drivers of diversification. Our study brings the total number of Pareidae species to 41 and further highlights the importance of comprehensive taxonomic revisions not only for the better understanding of biodiversity and its evolution, but also for the elaboration of adequate conservation actions.

Project description:BackgroundEfficient venom delivery systems are known to occur only in varanoid lizards and advanced colubroidean snakes among squamate reptiles. Although components of these venomous systems might have been present in a common ancestor, the two lineages independently evolved strikingly different venom gland systems. In snakes, venom is produced exclusively by serous glands in the upper jaw. Within the colubroidean radiation, lower jaw seromucous infralabial glands are known only in two distinct lineages-the basal pareatids and the more advanced Neotropical dipsadines known as "goo-eating snakes". Goo-eaters are a highly diversified, ecologically specialized clade that feeds exclusively on invertebrates (e.g., gastropod molluscs and annelids). Their evolutionary success has been attributed to their peculiar feeding strategies, which remain surprisingly poorly understood. More specifically, it has long been thought that the more derived Dipsadini genera Dipsas and Sibynomorphus use glandular toxins secreted by their infralabial glands to extract snails from their shells.ResultsHere, we report the presence in the tribe Dipsadini of a novel lower jaw protein-secreting delivery system effected by a gland that is not functionally related to adjacent teeth, but rather opens loosely on the oral epithelium near the tip of the mandible, suggesting that its secretion is not injected into the prey as a form of envenomation but rather helps control the mucus and assists in the ingestion of their highly viscous preys. A similar protein-secreting system is also present in the goo-eating genus Geophis and may share the same adaptive purpose as that hypothesized for Dipsadini. Our phylogenetic hypothesis suggests that the acquisition of a seromucous infralabial gland represents a uniquely derived trait of the goo-eating clade that evolved independently twice within the group as a functionally complex protein-secreting delivery system.ConclusionsThe acquisition by snail-eating snakes of such a complex protein-secreting system suggests that the secretion from the hypertrophied infralabial glands of goo-eating snakes may have a fundamental role in mucus control and prey transport rather than envenomation of prey. Evolution of a functional secretory system that combines a solution for mucus control and transport of viscous preys is here thought to underlie the successful radiation of goo-eating snakes.

Dataset Information

A revised taxonomy of Asian snail-eating snakes Pareas (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny.

Publications

A revised taxonomy of Asian snail-eating snakes <i>Pareas</i> (Squamata, Pareidae): evidence from morphological comparison and molecular phylogeny.

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