Hebius gilhodesi Bohra, Nguyen, Vogel, Lalremsanga, Biakzuala, Das, Warjri, Thongni, Poyarkov & Purkayastha, 2025, comb. nov.

Hebius gilhodesi comb. nov. (Wall, 1925) (Fig. 10C, 10D, 11, 12 and 13; Table 3) Natrix gilhodesi — Wall 1925a: 587: Plate: Fig. 2: 2a–c.— Type locality. “Huton, Bhamo district (30 miles north-east of Bhamo; circa 4,500 feet; Lat. Circa 97°.33; Long. Circa 24°.24)”, now near Hutung (24.758590°N, 97.411820°E), Bhamo district, Kachin State, Myanmar. Holotype — BMNH 1946.1.13.62 (adult male; formerly BM 1925.4.2.8); collected by Reverend Father Gilhodes and deposited by F. Wall. Paratypes — BMNH 1946.1.13.63 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.10 (an adult female), BMNH 1925.4.2.11 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.12 (an adult female), BMNH 1925.4.2.13 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.14 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.15 (an adult female) and BMNH 1925.4.2.15A (an adult female), all bearing the same collection details as holotype. Chresonyms Natrix gihodesi — Wall 1925b:808 (Wall incorrectly spelled “ gilhodesi ” as “ gihodesi ”). Natrix khasiensis — Wall 1926:559 (Wall himself synonymized his described species gilhodesi with khasiensis). Materials examined Holotype (Fig. 11)— BMNH 1946.1.13.62 (formerly BM 1925.4.2.8), an adult male collected by Reverend Father Gilhodes from Huton, Bhamo district (30 miles north-east of Bhamo; circa 4,500 feet; Lat. Circa 97°.33; Long. Circa 24°.24)”; now near Hutung (24.758590°N, 97.411820°E), Bhamo district, Kachin State, Myanmar. Paratypes (Fig. 12)— BMNH 1946.1.13.63 (formerly BM 1925.4.2.9) (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.10 (an adult female), BMNH 1925.4.2.11 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.12 (an adult female), BMNH 1925.4.2.13 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.14 (an adult male), BMNH 1925.4.2.15 (an adult female) and BMNH 1925.4.2.15A (an adult female), all bearing the same collection details as holotype. Referred materials — BMNH 1974.884 (an adult female) collected by Frank Wall from nearby Alangdunhku, Putao district, Kachin State, Myanmar (27.25°N, 97.75°E); CAS 221504, CAS 221525, CAS 221543, all adult females collected by the Late J.B. Slowinski, D.O. Rao, G.O.U. Wogan, Late H. Win, A.K. Shein, K.S. Lwin & H. Tun on 9 th September 2001 from Naung Mon Township (27º26’N, 97°55’E; 27º27’N, 97°55’E & 27º27’N, 97°55’E), Putao district, Kachin State, Myanmar; CAS 224654, CAS 224694, all adult females collected from Nangmung town, Nangmung Township, Putao district, Kachin State, Myanmar (27°30’N, 97°48’E; 27°30’N, 97°49’E) by the Late H. Win, Y.N. T Na, H. Ram & S. Di on 13 th April, 2002. Notes: Natrix gilhodesi was described by Wall (1925a) based on collections sent to him by Reverend Father Gilhodes but Wall (1926) himself synonymized “ gilhodesi ” with Natrix (Hebius) khasiensis later. This synonymy was widely accepted by many authors including Smith (1943) and David et al. (2013). In the original description, Wall (1925a) stated that he had six specimens in hand (one as the type i.e. BMNH 1946.1.13.62 {formerly BM 1925.4.2.8} and the other five as co-types) but according to the catalogue of the Natural History Museum, London, there are a total of eight specimens in the original series as co-types (see David et al. 2013:308), clearly indicating that Wall (1925a) didn’t mention about the remaining three included co-types or paratypes. Furthermore in the same journal, Wall (1925b) stated that he had 19 collections from Kachin State, out of which the largest specimen was 488 mm (versus the largest specimen in the original type series of gilhodesi according to Wall (1925a) is 530 mm), clearly indicating that the second collection mentioned by Wall (1925b) should not be a part of the original collection as mentioned in Wall (1925a). Moreover, “ gilhodesi ” was misspelt as “ gihodesi ” in Wall (1925b). We herein revalidate this species from the synonymy of Hebius khasiensis (Guo et al. 2014) and designate Hebius gilhodesi comb. nov. as a valid taxon in the genus Hebius. Diagnosis and description: A medium sized natricid snake growing upto a maximum SVL of 435 mm and is diagnosed from all other congeners based on the combination of following characters: (1) cylindrical body with 19 (OSR):19 (MSR):17 (PSR) dorsal scale rows, all of which are strongly keeled except for the outermost row close to ventral edges that are either smooth or very feebly keeled. Posterior region of the body close to the base of the tail are always strongly keeled; (2) ventrals 143–153; (3) subcaudals 87–111, all paired or divided; (4) anal plate divided or paired; (5) tail relatively long with a Tal/TL ratio of 0.296 –0.346 (6) 9 supralabials or upper labials out of which 4 th to 6 th are touching the orbit and the last three supralabials are comparatively much larger; (7) 10–11 infralabials or lower labials out of which the first five are touching the first pair of anterior chin shields; (8) nasal scale distinct and divided, nostril lies laterally in the center of the nasal scale; (9) internasals divided or paired; (10) a single loreal scale on either side of the head dorso-laterally; (11) 21–23 maxillary teeth on both sides which gets slightly enlarged posteriorly including the last two to three posterior teeth without diastema that are moderately enlarged as compared to the anterior ones; (12) dorsal body coloration in life mostly with a reddish tinge, somewhat rusty brown in life; dorso-lateral stripe on the dorsum is absent and is instead replaced by a series of indistinct, very obscure, tiny faded or ochre spots which properly continues till the midbody (13) upper lips or supralabials are usually off white in coloration intermixed with distinct black markings that are usually present in and around the marginal edges of each supralabial scale, the black markings become comparatively somewhat larger in the last three supralabials; (14) nape with an indistinct, discontinuous off whitish or creamish streak which breaks into whitish spots and each whitish spot are separated from each other by an interval of at least 2–5 dorsal scales usually (except for a single specimen where the spots are separated from each other by an interval of only one scale); (15) upper portion of the head in life mainly has three shades of coloration ranging from reddish to rusty brown to sap greenish intermixed with irregular creamy yellowish spots; (16) ventral region is off white in coloration along with the presence of distinct black spots on the ventral edges of each ventral, anal and each subcaudal scale throughout, thereby forming a thin, distinct and dark ventro-lateral line like appearance. Description of the holotype (Fig. 11): An adult male with a cylindrical as well as a slender body having a TL (total length) of 525 mm, SVL 346 mm, Tal 179 mm and a Tal/TL ratio of 0.341. Head is elongated, moderately large and is somewhat distinct from neck (HL/SVL 0.04); Snout is rather large, as long as broad and semi-oval in shape as seen from above. Eye is moderately large (ED1 2.7 mm; ED2 2.5 mm) and pupils are round. Rostral is partially visible from above, much wider than high and is in broad contact with 1 st supralabial, anterior portion of nasal and inter-nasals; the nasal scale is on either dorso-lateral side of the head and is irregularly pentagonal, somewhat elongated, completely divided sub-equally into two halves (the posterior half slightly larger than the anterior half) by a somewhat perpendicular suture above and below the crescentic nostril; the nostril lies right in the center of the nasal scale laterally; a pair of internasals clearly visible from above, slightly broader than long (L–INas 1.4 mm; W–INas 1.5 mm; L–INas/W–INas 0.9) and are in broad contact with each other; each internasal is irregularly sub-triangular in shape and is in contact with rostral, nasal and prefrontal scales; a pair of pre-frontals that are either irregularly pentagonal or irregularly hexagonal in shape, slightly wider than long (L–PreFro/ W–PreFro 0.8) and are broadly connected with each other; prefrontal larger than internasal in terms of both length and width (L–INas/L–PreFro 0.7; W–INas/W–PreFro 0.6) and prefrontal sutures are slightly longer than internasal sutures; prefrontals are in contact with internasal, nasal, loreal, preocular, supraocular and frontal; frontal pentagonal, elongated, longer than broad (FL 4 mm, FW 2.9; FW/FL 0.7 mm), about nearly twice longer than prefrontal length (FL 4mm; L–PreFro 2mm; L–PreFro/ FL 0.5) and is in contact with prefrontal, supraocular as well as parietal; one elongated supraocular above the eyeball on either side that is anteriorly narrowed, irregularly rectangular and is in contact with prefrontal, preocular, frontal, parietal and postocular; a pair of parietals that are large, much longer than broad (L–Par 6.3mm, W–Par 3.1 mm; W–Par/ L–Par 0.5), broadly in contact with each other and are also in contact with dorsal scales on the occiput, temporals (anterior as well as posterior), postocular, supraocular as well as frontal; one small loreal scale on either dorso-lateral side of the head, completely equal in length to depth (L–Lor 1.2mm; H–Lor 1.2mm) and is in contact with 2nd and 3rd supralabials on both the sides; two small preoculars on either dorso-lateral side of the head; 3 postoculars on either dorso-lateral side of the head, the bottom one is very small in size; Temporals 1+1 on the right and 2+1 on the left side. 9 supralabials on both the sides out of which 1st and 2nd are touching the nasals, 2nd and 3rd are touching the loreals and 4th, 5th, 6th are touching the orbit; 10 infralabials on both the sides out of which the first pair is the longest and is in broad contact with each other behind the mental; the first five infralabials are in contact with the anterior pair of chin shields whereas 5th, 6th and 7th are in contact with the posterior pair of chin shields. Mental roughly triangular, wider than high; two pairs of chin shields, posterior chin shields are longer than the anterior ones, separated from each other by a row of three to four medium sized, elongated scales and mental groove