A New Species of Liotyphlops (Serpentes: Anomalepididae) from the Atlantic Coastal Forest in Southeastern Brazil

Updated distribution maps with new records of Trilepida fuliginosa (Passos, Caramaschi & Pinto, 2006) and Drepanoides anomalus (Jan, 1863) (Squamata, Serpentes) in the state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil

“…Scolecophidian bring together the thinnest and smallest species of snakes with complex taxonomy (Passos et al 2006;Centeno et al 2010;Graboski et al 2015). One species of the family Anomalepididae [(Liotyphlops ter netzii (Boulenger, 1896)], three species of Typhlopidae [(Amerotyphlops brongersmianus (Vanzolini, 1976), A. paucisquamus (Dixon & Hendricks, 1979), and A. reti culatus (Linnaeus, 1758)], and two species of Leptotyphlopidae (Trilepida brasiliensis and T. fuliginosa) occur in Maranhão (Guedes et al 2018;Costa and Bérnils 2018; this study).…”

Description of a second known Liotyphlops caissara specimen (Serpentes: Anomalepididae)

“…This encounter of a second L. caissara specimen is remarkable, as the species seems to be rare, since herpetofauna inventories lasting one year were carried out in both areas where the presence of this snake was recorded, using different snake-collecting methodologies, with no further records of any additional specimens (Cicchi et al 2009, Centeno et al 2010. Additionally, this new specimen expands the morphological variation of the number of dorsal scales in the Liotyphlops genus, at 296 (vs. 304 in L. wilderi, Dixon and Kofron 1984) and, considering the fact that the holotype of this species was destroyed (F.L.…”

“…Sex was determined by a longitudinal incision at the base of the tail to check for the presence/absence of hemipenes. Measurements (in mm), terminology for the head scalation and scale counts follows Dixon and Kofron (1984) and Centeno et al (2010).…”

“…The genus Liotyphlops Peters, 1860 comprises small snakes, widely distributed in the Neotropical region (Dixon and Kofron 1984, Freire et al 2007, Centeno et al 2010. It is the most speciesrich genus among Anomalepididae snakes, with 12 currently recognized species (Santos and Reis 2018).…”

The status of the anomalepidid snake Liotyphlops albirostris and the revalidation of three taxa based on morphology and ecological niche models

“…Some illustrations were done using a Leica MS5 dissecting microscope equipped with a camera lucida. Nomenclature of scale variables follows Dixon and Kofron (1983), Savage (2002), Freire et al (2007), Haad et al (2008), Centeno et al (2010), and Santos and Reis (2018). However, we opted for keeping the use of ocular and preocular scales, given that the eye is visible in the Colombian specimens, and in some specimens of L. albirostris.…”