A new species of Tropidophis (Squamata: Tropidophiidae) and molecular phylogeny of the Cuban radiation of the genus

Abstract

Cuba has the highest diversity of snakes in the genus Tropidophis, representing 53 % of all the known species. Tropidophis steinleini sp. nov. is described from the eastern region of Cuba, raising the number of species to 17 in this archipelago. The new species is most closely related to T. wrighti, T. spiritus and T. morenoi. We discuss the phylogenetic relationships of this new species and other species of the genus in Cuba, based on molecular data, and classified them within three species groups according to the obtained tree topology.