Taxonomic revision of the Erythrolamprus reginae species group, with description of a new species from Guiana Shield (Serpentes: Xenodontinae)

Abstract

We perform a review of the Erythrolamprus reginae species group and putative related taxa (E. dorsocorallinus, E. zweifeli, and E. oligolepis), based on external morphology and hemipenial characters. We infer species boundaries among taxa traditionally associated with this group, recognizing two nominal subspecies (Erythrolamprus reginae reginae and E. r. macrosomus) in the species level. We propose the synonymy of E. r. semilineatus with E. reginae and recognize the validity of the related taxa, such as: E. dorsocorallinus, E. zweifeli, and E. oligolepis. In addition, two specimens occurring in the state Amapá, Brazil, are herein described as a new species. Therefore, we provide an identification key for the species of the group and discuss some of the combination of morphological features useful to delimitate the species of this group, in comparison with other representatives of the genus Erythrolamprus.

The Western Amazonian Richness Gradient for Squamate Reptiles: Are There Really Fewer Snakes and Lizards in Southwestern Amazonian Lowlands?

“…5 T. Paine, submitted manuscript; photographed. 6 Taxonomy given here follows recent revision of Erythrolamprus / Liophis [27]. 7 Reference [16] lists Chironius cf.…”

“…Finally, we generated an expected list that included all species known from lowland Amazonian rainforest with documented occurrences in the broader Los Amigos / Madre de Dios region; this includes all species known from other lowland sites within roughly 150 km of LABS, and which we consider to have a high likelihood of detection with continued work at the site. Where possible, we used recent taxonomic works to update the identifications of many specimens in our dataset (e.g., Erythrolamprus; [27]).…”

“…For this reason, we have provided a list of vouchered specimens from LABS that can be cross-referenced by future studies. Potentially problematic groups include the following snake genera: (1) Chironius, including the relationship between C. carinatus and C. exoletus in southern Peru (listed as C. exoletus/carinatus in Table A1) as well the potential for cryptic diversity in several other taxa [48,52]; (2) all species in the genus Erythrolamprus ( = Liophis), which appears to consist of five species at LABS, but where-in light of recent taxonomic work [27]-the connections between the taxa we list and Erythrolamprus/Liophis taxa reported for other Amazonian sites is unclear; (3) Atractus, a megadiverse snake genus that contains at least three species at LABS, but which is in need of comprehensive revision for southern Amazonia; species of this genus are frequently misidentified in both museum and field collections [53,54].…”

DNA barcoding of the National Museum of Natural History reptile tissue holdings raises concerns about the use of natural history collections and the responsibilities of scientists in the molecular age

“…Erythrolamprus reginae is paraphyletic with respect to E. poecilogyrus. The former taxon is known to be a complex likely containing multiple cryptic species [58]. Some of us (DGM and KdQ) are involved in a separate project on this group (Ascenso et al, in prep.…”

Clarifying the type locality of Liotyphlops wilderi (Garman, 1883) (Serpentes, Anomalepididae), with comments on other reptiles from São Cyriaco, Minas Gerais

“…A well-defined type locality is of great importance to taxonomy and systematics. If populations attributed to a single species are found to diverge sufficiently (morphologically and/or genetically, for example) to be considered two or more subspecies or species, the population most closely related to the name-bearing type will retain the taxon name (e.g., Sturaro et al 2018;Ascenso et al 2019;Perez and Borges-Martins 2019). In the current "genomic era", many historical herpetological type specimens, usually formalin-fixed, lack genetic samples, and extracting and sequencing DNA from them is still complex (Bell et al 2020).…”