A new species of earth snake (Dipsadidae, Geophis) from Mexico

Abstract

A new species of the Geophis dubius group is described from the mountains of the Sierra Zongolica in west-central Veracruz and the Sierra de Quimixtlán in central-east Puebla. The new species is most similar to Geophis duellmani and Geophis turbidus, which are endemic to the mountains of northern Oaxaca and the Sierra Madre Oriental of Puebla and Hidalgo, respectively. However, the new species differs from Geophis duellmani by the presence of postocular and supraocular scales and from Geophis turbidus by having a bicolor dorsum. With the description of the new species, the species number in the genus increases to 50 and to 12 in the Geophis dubius group. Additionally, a key to the species of the Geophis dubius group is provided.

First record of the goo-eater snake, Geophis nigroalbus Boulenger, 1908 (Serpentes, Dipsadidae), in the Magdalena Valley, Cordillera Oriental of Colombia

“…The genus Geophis Wagler, 1830 contains 50 known species of semi-fossorial snakes (Canseco-Márquez et al 2016;Uetz et al 2019), making it one of the most diverse colubrid genera in the western hemisphere (Wilson and Townsend 2007). This genus is principally distributed in Middle America, from northern Mexico to western Panama, between 13-2744 m a.s.l (Myers 2003;Wilson and Townsend 2007;Canseco-Márquez et al 2016). The western Andes of Colombia presents two endemic species: G. nigroalbus Boulenger, 1908 andG.…”