Lycodon chrysoprateros Ota and Ross, 1994

Dalupiri Island Asian Wolf Snake; Ross’ Wolf Snake

Lycodon chrysoprateros Ota and Ross, 1994:165–168, figs. 8–9.— Lanza, 1999:89, 98.— Gaulke, 2002:89–90.— Oliveros, Ota, Crombie, and Brown, 2011:15.— Siler, Oliveros, Santanen, and Brown, 2013:268, fig. 3.— Wallach, Williams, and Boundy, 2014:393.

TYPE LOCALITY AND TYPE SPECIMEN (S).— east side of Dalupiri Id., Babuyan Ids ., northern Luzon, Philippines. Holotype: PNM 2045.

PHILIPPINE DISTRIBUTION (ENDEMIC) (Map 21D [p. 132]).— Dalupiri Id., Babuyan Ids. (off of northern Luzon Id.).

REMARKS.— Siler et al. (2013) used a multilocus molecular analysis DNA sequences to demonstrate that L. chrysoprateros is nearly genetically identical to L. alcalai (the Batanes Islands) as well as all populations on Calayan and Babuyan Claro islands. We suspect that L. chrysoprateros and L. alcalai may be conspecific.

CONSERVATION STATUS [IUCN].— Critically Endangered B1ab(iii) (IUCN [2016] ver. 3.1). See comments in the Introduction relating to the IUCN assessment of conservation status.)