Lycodon cathaya information

Lycodon cathaya
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Lycodon
Species:	L. cathaya
Binomial name
Lycodon cathaya J. Wang, Qi, Lyu, Zeng & Y.-Y. Wang, 2020[1]

Lycodon cathaya, the Huaping wolf snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. It is a slender species with a total length of 562.5–910.6 cm (221.5–358.5 in), a snout–vent length of 451.4–730.1 cm (177.7–287.4 in), and tail length of 111.1–180.5 cm (43.7–71.1 in). The upper side of the head is brownish-black with a grey-tinged rose collar band, while the underside of the head is mostly whitish. The upper side of the body is brownish-black with grey-tinged rose bands that divide the brownish-black ground colour into elliptical patches. The middle of the underside has irregular brownish-black splotches making an unbroken strip along the underside with two greyish-white lines along its sides. The Huaping wolf snake can be distinguished from other wolf snakes by a combination of its scalation and coloration.

Endemic to China, it was formally described by the Chinese herpetologist Jian Wang and his colleagues in 2020. It is known only from the Huaping Nature Reserve in Guangxi, but may also occur in southwestern Hunan and southeastern Guizhou. The habitat around the Huaping Nature Reserve is mountainous, with montane evergreen broad-leaved forest or mixed forest at elevations of 850–1,000 m (2,790–3,280 ft). Although the Huaping Nature Reserve is well-protected, further studies are needed outside the reserve to better inform conservation actions for the species.