Reptilia, Squamata, Serpentes, Lygophis paucidens Hoge, 1952: first records for Paraguay

Abstract

Abstract:The first Paraguayan records of the poorly known xenodontine snake Lygophis paucidens are reported. Two male specimens were collected in a mosaic habitat of Campo Sucio and Cerrado sensu stricto in the Reserva Natural Laguna Blanca, Departamento San Pedro. This is the first record of this species outside of Brazil.

Mapping local and regional distribution of Lygophis paucidens Hoge, 1952 (Serpentes, Dipsadidae), an elusive snake from the sandy savannas of Brazil and Paraguay

“…Emas National Park), where it was only found outside the park, in sandy soil savannas near the Araguaia headwaters, but not inside the park, dominated by tabletop plateau savannas with clay-rich soils (Valdujo et al 2013). This species, thus, seems to occur mainly on patches of sandy soils (Cacciali et al 2013; this work), which suggests a discontinuous distribution across central Brazil, or at least rarified distribution outside areas dominated by sandy soils. We argue that this strong psammophilous association might explain its rarity and disjunct distribution and support its existence in patchy open habitat enclaves in other ecoregions (Guedes 2012), such as transition zones with Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, and Amazonia.…”

“…Moreover, Sete Cidades National Park (Piracuruca), mapped in the Caatinga region, is actually dominated by typical cerrado savannas with sandy soils (Castro et al 2010). Until 2001, L. paucidens had only been reported for six localities (Nogueira 2001), but recent reports have considerably extended its range, including the single locality outside Brazil, a cerrado area in Reserva Natural Laguna Blanca (Paraguay), which extended this species' distribution by more than 700 km southwest from the nearest record (although reported erroneously as 320 km by Cacciali et al 2013). It is unclear whether L. paucidens occurs continuously, since there are noticeable gaps in its distribution.…”

“…It can be differentiated from other Lygophis species, such as L. flavifrenatus Cope, 1862, by the number of maxillary teeth (fewer than 13 in L. paucidens) and by its small optic foramen (Dixon 1989). Regarding pholidosis, L. paucidens presents the following counts: eight supralabials, 165-174 ventrals, 62-72 subcaudals, and 17-17-15 dorsal scale rows (Dixon 1989;Lema 1989;Cacciali et al 2013).…”

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“…Philodryas livida a globally threatened snake: there has been only one record in Paraguay, which was not in a protected area © Para La Tierra (paralatierra.org/index.html). Snakes such as Lygophis paucidens, Philodryas nattereri, and P. livida are only found here (Cacciali et al, 2013;Smith et al, 2013Smith et al, , 2014.…”

The hawkmoths (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) of Rancho Laguna Blanca, Departamento San Pedro, Paraguay with documentation of five new country records

“…Sustained inventory work by PLT at RLB has demonstrated the cross-taxon importance of the property at a national level, with numerous taxa currently recorded here that are not known to occur elsewhere in Paraguay (Cacciali et al 2013, Smith et al 2013a,b, Smith et al 2014, Brouard et al 2015, Smith et al 2016. RLB has been recognised as an Important Bird Area PY021 by Birdlife International (Guyra Paraguay 2008), proposed as an Important Area for Amphibians and Reptiles (Smith et al 2016) and proposed as an AZE site (Alliance for Zero Extinction).…”