While considerable progress has been made in the taxonomic studies of the genus
Lycodon in Asia, questions remain to be clarified regarding the taxonomy of certain groups, particularly those containing species in China. Not only do many regions in China remain overlooked by herpetologists, resulting in the possibility of undiscovered new species, but the surveyed areas also have suspicious records of recognized congeners that require taxonomic confirmations. Combining both morphological and genetic data, we tackle these outstanding issues in the taxonomy of
Lycodon in China. In particular, we discover two new species of
Lycodon: one from the previously neglected hot-dry valley in the northern Hengduan Mountain Region close to Tibet, and another recluse and cryptic species from the
L. fasciatus
complex in the downtown park of a major city in southern Sichuan Province. Additionally, we clarify the distribution of
L. septentrionalis
in China and resurrect and elevate its junior synonym subspecies,
Dinodon septentrionale chapaense, as a full, valid species, and we synonymize the recently described
L. namdongensis to the resurrected
L. chapaensis comb. nov..
Lycodon chapaensis comb. nov. thus represents a new national record of reptilian fauna of China. Lastly, based on literature review, we also correct some of the erroneous records of
L. fasciatus and
L. ruhstrati
in China, point out remaining taxonomic issues of the genus for future research, and update the dichotomous key and distribution of the 20 species of
Lycodon currently recorded from China.
