A new species of Oxyrhopus Wagler, 1830 (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) from the Bolivian Andes

Abstract

We describe a new dipsadine snake species, of the genus Oxyrhopus Wagler, 1830, from the highlands of Bolivia. Oxyrhopus emberti sp. n. is diagnosed from its congeners based on external and hemipenial morphology. The new species inhabits the humid forests of Yungas and Tucumano-Bolivian Forest highlands, between 1.200 -1.800 meters above sea level, and is likely to be a Bolivian endemic. We also discuss the relationships of the new species with Andean congeners and provide a key to the identifi cation of the Oxyrhopus species from the Central Andes of Bolivia and Peru.

Axial dicephaly in the false coral snake, Oxyrhopus emberti (Gonzales, Reichle, and Entiauspe-Neto 2020; Colubridae: Dispsadinae), Santa Cruz, Bolivia

“…Specimen MNKR 4336, paratype of Oxyrhopus emberti, was reported in the description of the species with a small comment about the existence of a second head without giving more details about the individual (Gonzales et al 2020). During a visit to the collection of the Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, I examined this individual and here provide further description: A dicephalic male Oxyrhopus emberti with the following combination of characters (Figure 1A-E): total length measured from main head 291 mm, right/left head length from snout to fusion zone 11.82 mm/9.22 mm (4.06% and 3.16% of snout-vent length, respectively); head height right/left 4.29 mm/4.73 mm; width of the heads right/left 6.31 mm/6.11 mm; 201 ventrals plus three fusion zone preventrals; 88 paired subcaudals; tail length 65 mm (full tail); heads moderately short and distinct from the necks.…”

“…Until 2018, there were no documented records of dicephaly in the genus Oxyrhopus (Wallach 2018), and the record by Gonzales et al (2020) was the second of dicephaly for Bolivia and the first for Oxyrhopus. This snake had been collected on 6 January 2004 at Pampagrande in the department of Santa Cruz (18.100000 S, 64.100000 W) and was deposited in the National Museum of Natural History Noel Kempff Mercado as MNKR 4336.…”