Epictia vonmayi, Koch, Claudia, Cruz, Roy Santa & Cárdenas, Heidy, 2016

Koch, Claudia, Cruz, Roy Santa & Cárdenas, Heidy, 2016, Two new endemic species of Epictia Gray, 1845 (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae) from Northern Peru, Zootaxa 4150 (2), pp. 101-122 : 115-117

Epictia vonmayi sp. nov.

( Figures 1 E–H, 11, 12)

Holotype. MUSA 4342 , from La Granja-Río Tinto , District Querocoto, Province Chota, Region Cajamarca, Peru (06°20'30.592’’ S, 079°06'41.058’’ W, 2069 m a.s.l.) collected by R. Santa Cruz and H. Cardenas on 15 January 2013.

Paratype. MUSA 4340 , from La Granja-Río Tinto , District Querocoto, Province Chota, Region Cajamarca, Peru (06°20'38.825’’ S, 079°06'31.007’’ W, 1985 m a.s.l.) collected by R. Santa Cruz and H. Cardenas on 15 January 2013.

Diagnosis. (1) 14 midbody scale rows; (2) 10 midtail scale rows; (3) usually 2 supralabials, anterior one in broad contact with supraocular; (4) 18 subcaudals; (5) 196–205 mid-dorsal scale rows; (6) 14 black longitudinal stripes around the body, with each stripe running through the center of each scale, separated by bright yellow interspaces; (7) tail with 10 black longitudinal stripes running through the center of each scale, separated by yellow interspaces; (8) dorsal surface of rostral bright yellow; (9) terminal part of tail yellow; (10) distributed ~ 2000 m a.s.l.

Comparisons [conditions for other Epictia species in brackets]: Having 10 midtail scale rows differentiates this species from E. albipuncta , E. striatula , E. unicolor , and E. weyrauchi [all having 12]. By the presence of a frontal scale the new species is distinguished from E. ater (including E. nasalis ) and E. bakewelli . The number of 196–205 mid-dorsal scales, differentiates it from E. alfredschmidti [267–279], E. ater [212–259], E. australis [233–282], E. bakewelli [226–262], E. borapeliotes [256–282], E. clinorostris [240–256], E. collaris [155–166], E. columbi [242–265], E. goudotii [224–260], E. magnamaculata [216–262], E. melanura [395–396], E. phenops [216–268], E. rufidorsa [256–270], E. septemlineata [257], E. striatula [216–265], E. subcrotilla [318–333], E. teaguei [223–259], E. tenella [205–242], E. tesselata [261–273], E. tricolor [276–310], E. unicolor [246], E. vanwallachi [188], and E. vellardi [224–255]. The number of 18 subcaudal scales distinguishes this species from E. alfredschmidti [14–16], E. clinorostris [10–16], E. columbi [22–25], E. munoai [10–14], E. nasalis [21], E. rubrolineata [15], E. septemlineata [16], E. vanwallachi [16], and E. vellardi [13–16]. By having the anterior supralabial in broad contact with the supraocular scale it differs from E. albipuncta , E. ater , E. australis , E. bakewelli , E. borapeliotes , E. clinorostris , E. collaris , E. columbi , E. diaplocia , E. goudotii , E. magnamalculata , E. melanura , E. munoai , E. nasalis , E. peruviana , E. phenops , E. signata , E. striatula , E. subcrotilla , E. unicolor , and E. vellardi . The presence of a yellow dorsal blotch on the rostral further differentiates this species from E. columbi , E. melanoterma , E. rufidorsa , E. vanwallachi , and E. weyrauchi . It differs from E. columbi , E. melanura , E. melanoterma , E. munoai , E. rufidorsa , and E. septemlineata by having a yellow terminal spine. By having a color pattern of 14 distinct dark longitudinal stripes running centrally through each dorsal and ventral body scale the new species can be distinguished from E. albipuncta , E. alfredschmidti , E. amazonica , E. antoniogarciai , E. ater , E. borapeliotes , E. clinorostris , E. collaris , E. columbi , E. fallax , E. hobartsmithi , E. melanura , E. munoai , E. nasalis , E. peruviana , E. phenops , E. rubrolineata , E. rufidorsa , E. septemlineata , E. signata , E. subcrotilla , E. teaguei , E. tesselata , E. tricolor , E. undecimstriata , E. unicolor , E. vanwallach , E. vellardi , E. venegasi , and E. weyrauchi . The species differs from E. albifrons by having a black and yellow striped dorsal coloration [reddish brown] and from E. tenella by having unserrated longitudinal lines [serrated].

Description of holotype. A large adult specimen with SVL of 118.4 mm; TAL of 10.9 mm; MB of 3.4 mm; MT of 2.6 mm; TL/TAL of 11.9; TL/MB of 38.0; HW of 2.7 mm; HH of 1.9 mm; HL of 2.9 mm; DSN of 0.6 mm; DNE of 0.8 mm; ED of 0.7 mm. Head almost cylindrical, hardly distinguishable from neck; body cylindrical; not tapered cranially or caudally. Snout rounded in lateral and ventral view. Rostral visible in dorsal view, triangular dorsally with dorsal termination (apex) acute, almost squared ventrally, reaching the imaginary transverse line between the anterior borders of the eyes, contacting upper and lower nasal laterally and frontal dorsally.

Nasal completely divided horizontally by an oblique suture, reaching rostral and first supralabial; ellipsoid nostril located in the center of the suture between upper and lower nasal, having the major axis oriented along the suture; supranasal contacting rostral anteriorly, infranasal ventrally, first supralabial and supraocular posteriorly, and frontal dorsally; infranasal contacting first supralabial posteriorly; two supralabial scales positioned anterior and posterior to ocular scale (1+1), respectively, resulting in an upper lip border formed by rostral, infranasal, anterior supralabial, ocular, and posterior supralabial; first supralabial about twice as high as wide, exceeding nostril, almost reaching central level of eye, dorsally somewhat acuminate in contact with supraocular scale; second supralabial subtrapezoidal, 1.2 times wider than high, slightly exceeding central level of eye, about as high as and at widest point 1.8 times wider than first supralabial; posterior margin of second supralabial in broad contact with temporal and in contact with first scale of lateral body row, dorsal margin in contact with parietal; temporal scale of same size as dorsal scales of lateral rows; ocular scale pentagonal with dorsal apex acuminate, 1.4 times higher than wide, contacting anteriorly first supralabial, anterodorsally supraocular, posterodorsally parietal and dorsally second supralabial; eye located slightly above level of maximum width of ocular, with lower eye margin almost at level of center of nostril, positioned anteriorly but not contacting scale sutures; eyes mostly visible in dorsal view; supraocular scale oriented oblique, almost lozenge-shaped and about twice as long as wide, contacting posteriorly parietal and postfrontal, dorsally frontal; supraocular, parietal and occipital scales visible in lateral view; mid-dorsal head plates (frontal, postfrontal, interparietal, and interoccipital) marginally imbricate, subhexagonal, with interparietal being slightly larger than the other three scales; mid-dorsal head plates narrower and slightly higher than posterior mid-dorsal scales; frontal contacting rostral, supranasals, supraoculars, and postfrontal; postfrontal contacting frontal, supraoculars, parietals, and interparietal; interparietal contacting postfrontal, parietals, occipitals, and interoccipital; interoccipital contacting interparietal, occipitals, nuchal and first pair of paravertebral dorsal scales; parietal slightly larger than occipital, both polygonal and about twice as high as wide; lower margin of parietal contacting upper border of posterior supralabial and temporal, posterior margin in broad contact with occipital, dorsal margin contacting postfrontal and interparietal, anterior margin in broad contact with ocular and supraocular; lower margin of occipital contacting temporal and first scale of lateral body row, posterior margin in broad contact with first paravertebral and first scale of dorsolateral body row, dorsal margin in contact with interparietal and interoccipital, anterior margin in broad contact with parietal; four infralabials per side, subequal in size, first three higher than wide, fourth wider than high; mental scale small, lunulate; first two pairs of infralabials almost rectangular, larger than other infralabials; labials, chin and gular scales, and dorsal and lateral head scales porous.

Dorsal scales imbricate, smooth, homogeneous, rhomboid or elliptical in shape, about 1.5 times wider than long; 205 MDS; 14-14-14 D; 188 V; 10 TS; Anal plate large, more than twice as wide as long, bordered anteriorly and posteriorly each by five scales; 18 SC, becoming successively narrower distally; each of last four scales on the dorsal surface of the tail fused with adjacent dorsolateral scales; apical spine strongly pointed.

Color of holotype in life. Dorsal part of rostral scale bright yellow, lower part greyish-brown; supranasals mostly blackish, except for bright yellow anterior margins, adjacent to rostral scale; frontal bright yellow; postfrontal bright yellow, uniform in anterior half and slightly mottled with black in posterior half; supraoculars blackish except for bright yellow dorsal corners; parietals and occipitals mostly blackish, except for yellow dorsal and lower corners; interparietal with a large blackish central blotch, covering most of the scale and yellow margins; anterior supralabial blackish in dorsal half and yellowish-cream in lower half; ocular scale mostly blackish, yellowish-cream in lower part including posterior lower corner; second supralabial yellowish with a indistinct dark blotch in upper anterior part; body dorsally yellow and ventrally yellowish-cream with fourteen blackish or dark brown longitudinal stripes, which run along the center of each scale, forming a rectangular blotch in the center of each dorsal scale, and a more triangular blotch on each ventral scale; dark stripes and yellow interspaces of about the same width; vertebral stripe begins on the anterior part of interoccipital and reaches to the penultimate scale of the tail; paravertebral and dorsolateral stripes begin directly posterior to occipital scales and reach to the penultimate scale of tail; vertebral and paravertebral stripes merged on last part of tail; lateral stripes begin in anterior part of temporals reaching to third or fourth last scale of tail; mental and first pair of infralabials cream; ventral and ventrolateral stripes begin in chin region as dotted dark brown lines on a creamish-yellow background, turning into solid lines shortly after the head region and reaching to the cloacal shield; cloacal shield dark brown; ventral surface of tail yellowish-cream with three distinct dark brown stripes, beginning shortly behind the cloacal shield and reaching to the third or fourth ultimate scales of the tail; terminal spine and dorsally adjacent one or two scale rows and ventrally up to fourth ultimate scale row yellow.

Color of holotype in preservative. Yellow coloration changed to cream or beige; blackish coloration changed to dark brown.

Variation. The single paratype varies from the holotype in the following characters: 196 MDS; 181 V; SVL of 112.3 mm; TAL of 10.7 mm; MB of 3.3 mm; MT of 2.8 mm; TL/TAL of 11.5; TL/MB of 37.3; HW of 2.5 mm; HH of 2.3 mm; HL of 3.2 mm; DSN of 0.3 mm; DNE of 0.7 mm; ED of 0.6 mm; only one supralabial (anterior) present as the scale posterior to the ocular scale (usually second supralabial) is completely fused with the fourth infralabial and the fissure of the mouth just ends where the second supralabial would begin.

Color pattern of paratype mostly resembles that of the holotype except for the following: frontal scale mostly covered by a large dark blotch; posterior half of postfrontal dark brown; ocular scales, first pair of supralabials and first pair of infralabials dark; anterior half of cloacal shield dark, posterior half cream.

Etymology. The species name vonmayi is a noun (genitive case) and a patronym for Rudolf von May, Peruvian herpetologist, in recognition of his important contributions to the ecology and conservation of amphibians from his home country.

Distribution and natural history. This species is endemic to the northern Peruvian Andes and so far only known from the type locality in the Region Cajamarca at elevations between 1985–2069 m a.s.l. Both individuals were found in January 2015 under stones or trunks in a sloped mountain shrubland interspersed with crops ( Figure 13 ) in the same habitat and close to specimens of the congener E. teaguei and to the lizard species Polychrus peruvianus (Noble, 1924) and Stenocercus arndti Venegas, Echevarria & Alvarez, 2014 .

Remarks. In almost all museum collections from which we revised material we found specimens of the genus Epictia without further species delimitation or those that were assigned to the wrong species name. In some cases we were able to determine the corresponding species and we included the data of these specimens (see Appendix I) in the comparison sections of our species descriptions. In other cases we were also unable to make a correct identification and decided to not include these specimens in our comparative data. While some of these undetermined specimens might represent new species, correct identification of individuals that belong to actually known species is often hampered due to a lack of information on many of these recognized species. In some cases the species are known only from the type material and no further individuals have been collected, leading to a lack in information on intraspecific variation. The type locality of two species ( E. signata and E. unicolor ) is unknown and in three species ( E. rubrolineata , E. albifrons , and E. undecimstriata ) the type material is lost and information given in the original descriptions is very short and incomplete, making it even more difficult to impossible to assign specimens to these species. This becomes even worse in the cases of E. undecimstriata and E. unicolor , of which no further material has been collected since their descriptions. To increase the knowledge on overall diversity, intraspecific variation, and distributional range within the genus Epictia and to overcome difficulties in identification, extensive field work focused on the collection of lesser known species that are underrepresented in collections, as well as collecting specimens from biologically undersampled localities should be undertaken. Additionally, a combined molecular and morphological analysis is needed to shed some light into the phylogenetic relationship of the different species.

Figures

FIGURE 13. Type locality and habitat of Epictia vonmayi sp. nov. in La Granja-Río Tinto, District Querocoto, Province Chota, Region Cajamarca, Peru.

FIGURE 1. A – D: Holotype of Epictia venegasi sp. nov. (MUSA 4252): lateral (A), dorsal (B) and ventral (C) views of head and ventral view of tail and cloacal region (D); E – H: Holotype of Epictia vonmayi sp. nov. (MUSA 4342): lateral (E), dorsal (F) and ventral (G) views of head and ventral view of tail and cloacal region (H).