A new species of Lycodon from the Philippines, with a key to the genus (Reptilia Serpentes Colubridae)

A new species of Lycodon, L. ferroni, from Samar Island, central-eastern Ph ilippines, is described. This species is most similar to L. dumerili, from which it differs in having: 10 supralabials (IV-VI entering eye) instead of 9 (IV-V); dorsals reducing to 15 at the level of ventral 119 instead of at ventrals 131-145; body and tail with dark annuli instead of dark cross-ban ds. Lycodon contains about 25 species, 8 of which are endemic to the Philip pines: alcalai (Batan Island, Batan Group), bibonius (Camiguin Island, Babu yan Group), chrysoprateros (Dalupiri Island, Babuyan Group), dumerili (Basi lan, Mindanao), ferroni (Samar), muelleri (Batan, Luzon, Mindoro, Polillo), solivagus (Luzon), and tessellatus (Luzon); the 2 non-endemic species, L. subcinctus (SE Asia) and especially L. aulicus (S Asia), seem to be anthrop ophilous and likely to have reached the Philippines through human agency. A n extensive review strongly suggests that L. striatus nordicus Deraniyagala 1955 is a synonym of L. striatus bicolor (Nikolsky 1903) (new synonymy).