Epictia septemlineata, Koch, Claudia, Venegas, Pablo J. & Böhme, Wolfgang, 2015

Koch, Claudia, Venegas, Pablo J. & Böhme, Wolfgang, 2015, Three new endemic species of Epictia Gray, 1845 (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae) from the dry forest of northwestern Peru, Zootaxa 3964 (2), pp. 228-244 : 230-232

Epictia septemlineata sp. nov.

( Figures 1 , 2 A–C)

Holotype: CORBIDI 14683, from Limon Village, Celendín Province, Cajamarca Region, Peru (S 06°52’34.2’’, W 078°05’10.5’’, 2053 m.a.s.l.), collected by A. Garcia Bravo and C. Koch on 28 April 2009.

Diagnosis. (1) 14 midbody scale rows; (2) 10 midtail scale rows; (3) 2 supralabials, first large and in broad contact with supraocular; (4) 16 subcaudals; (5) 257 mid-dorsal scale rows; (6) Dorsum with seven black longitudinal stripes, outermost interspaces bright yellow along the body, medial interspaces yellow near the head and tail, and midbody interspaces reddish-brown; (7) rostral yellowish-white dorsally and cream ventrally; (8) terminal spine black; (9) ventral surface of head and body cream except for a soft dark longitudinal dotted line running along the center of each ventral scale row, anal plate cream with two lateral irregular dark blotches, and ventral surface of the tail cream, with three longitudinal rows of dark spots that merge distally and form a large irregular triangle.

Comparisons [conditions for other Epictia in brackets]: By having 257 mid-dorsal scales this species has a higher number than E. peruviana [185–199], E. collaris [155–166], E. diaplocia [205–233] and E. munoai [184– 230], and a lower number than E. alfredschmidti [267–279], E. subcrotilla [318–333], E. melanura [395–396], and E. tricolor [285–310]. By having 16 subcaudal scales it further differs from E. columbi [22–25], E. melanura [18– 20], E. munoai [10–14], E. nasalis [21] and E. tricolor [18–23]. By having a tricolor pattern of dorsal longitudinal stripes (reddish-brown, black and yellow) it differs from all members of the tesselata group except for E. alfredschmidti , E. teaguei and E. tricolor . By lacking a yellow terminal spine this species differs from E. alfredschmidti , E.australis , E. borapeliotes , E. clinorostris , E. collaris , E. diaplocia , E. goudotii , E. magnamaculata , E. nasalis , E. peruviana , E. rubrolineata , E. signata , E. striatula , E. subcrotilla , E. teaguei , E. tenella , E. tesselata , E. tricolor , E. undecimstriata and E. vellardi .

Description of holotype: An adult specimen with SVL of 172 mm; TAL of 9 mm; MB of 3.7 mm; MT of 3 mm; TL/TAL of 20.1; TL/MB of 48.9; HW of 3.1 mm; HH of 2.1 mm; HL of 4.1 mm; DSN of 1.2 mm; DNE of 0.8 mm; ED of 0.5 mm. Head subcylindrical, slightly depressed dorsoventrally, indistinguishable from neck; body cylindrical; slightly tapered cranially and caudally. Snout rounded in lateral view, slightly angled in ventral view. Rostral visible in dorsal view, about twice as long as wide, rectangular ventrally, triangular dorsally with dorsal termination (apex) acute, 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 oblique suture, reaching rostral and first supralabial; ovoid nostril located in the center of the suture and having the major axis oriented along the suture; supranasal about twice as high as wide and about twice higher than infranasal, contacting infranasal ventrally, first supralabial and supraocular posteriorly, and frontal dorsally; infranasal slightly higher than wide, about 1.5 times wider than anterior supralabial, contacting first supralabial posteriorly; two supralabial scales, first positioned anteriorly and second posteriorly to ocular scale (1+1); upper lip border formed by rostral, infranasal, anterior supralabial, ocular and posterior supralabial; first supralabial three times higher than wide, exceeding nostril, slightly exceeding central level of eye, in contact with supraocular scale dorsally and ocular posteriorly; ocular scale pentagonal with dorsal apex acuminate, 1.5 times higher than wide, contacting supraocular anterodorsally, parietal posterodorsally and second supralabial posteriorly; eye located at level of maximum width of ocular and almost at nostril level, positioned anteriorly without contacting scale sutures; eyes placed laterally, but partly visible in dorsal view; second supralabial subtrapezoidal, about as wide as high, reaching central level of eye and almost as high as anterior supralabial, 2.5 times wider than anterior supralabial at widest point; posterior margin of second supralabial in broad contact with temporal and in small contact with first ventrolateral scale; dorsal margin of second supralabial in contact with parietal; temporal scale of same size as dorsal scales of lateral rows; supraocular scale almost spindle-shaped, oriented oblique, three times longer than wide, contacting parietal posteriorly, and frontal and postfrontal dorsally; supraocular, parietal and occipital scales visible in lateral view; mid-dorsal head plates (frontal, postfrontal, interparietal and interoccipital) imbricate, slightly decreasing in size posteriorly, subcircular in dorsal view, except for ellipsoid interoccipital, less wider than posterior mid-dorsal scales; frontal contacting postfrontal posteriorly; postfrontal contacting supraoculars anteriorly, parietals and interparietal posteriorly; interparietal contacting parietals and occipitals laterally, and interoccipital posteriorly; interoccipital contacting occipitals laterally, and nuchal and first pair of paravertebral dorsal scales posteriorly; parietal almost 2.5 times higher than wide, marginally larger than occipital, both almost rectangular, oriented slightly oblique; lower margin of parietal contacting upper border of temporal, posterior margin in broad contact with occipital; lower margin of occipital contacting temporal and first lateral body scale, posterior margin in broad contact with first paravertebral and first dorsolateral body scales; six infralabials per side, slightly subequal in size; mental scale with the same width at lip border as rostral; first pair of infralabials with exactly the same width at lip border as lower nasal; dorsal and lateral head scales porous.

Dorsal scales imbricate, smooth, homogeneous, cycloid in shape, almost twice as wide as long; 257 MDS; 14– 14–14 D; 241 V; 10 TS; Anal plate large, almost twice as wide as long, triangular in shape with distal apex rounded, bordered anteriorly and posteriorly by three rows of scales; 16 SC, becoming slightly smaller distally; each of last four scales on the dorsal surface of the tail fused with adjacent dorsolateral scales; terminal spine conical, with stout base slightly wider than long.

Color of holotype in life: Rostral scale and infranasals yellowish-white dorsally and cream ventrally; dorsal head scales mostly blackish, except for thin indistinct white margins in the mid-dorsal head plates (frontal, postfrontal, interparietal and interoccipital); whitish lateral stripe covering entire infranasal, and lower parts of supralabials and ocular, dorsal part of supralabials and ocular blackish; dorsum with seven black longitudinal stripes, which run along the middle of each dorsal scale row; vertebral stripe slightly thicker than paravetebral stripes; outermost interspaces bright yellow, medial interspaces yellow near the head and tail, fading into reddishbrown at midbody; terminal spine black; ventral surface of head, body and tail cream except for a soft dark longitudinal dotted line running along the middle of each ventral scale row, outermost thickest, two dark indistinct blotches on the anal plate, three longitudinal rows of dark indistinct blotches on the subcaudals, and a triangleshaped blotch formed by the fusion of the three longitudinal rows in the distal portion of the ventral surface of the tail, with the apex oriented caudally.

Color of holotype in preservative: The pattern of longitudinal black stripes and other dark markings on the body remains unchanged, likewise the dark coloration of the head scales; the yellowish-white dot on rostral and infranasals changed to whitish cream; the yellow interspaces changed to cream, and the reddish-brown interspaces changed to sandy brown.

Etymology. The specific name is derived from the Latin septem = seven and lineata = striped and refers to the diagnostic pattern of seven longitudinal black stripes on the dorsum.

Distribution and natural history:. So far only known from the type locality in the interandean part of the Equatorial Dry Forest ( Figs. 3 and 8 ).

The single specimen was collected on the end of April 2009 at 5:30 pm under a stone on soft soil of a recently tilled grainfield ( Fig. 3 ). Temperature on the soil under the stone was 25.9°C, air temperature was 23°C and air humidity was 57%.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Holotype of Epictia septemlineata sp. nov. in life (CORBIDI 14683). Dorsal view (A); Detail of dorsal aspect of head (B); Detail of ventral aspect of tail and lower body (C).

FIGURE 2. Lateral (A), dorsal (B) and ventral (C) views of head of Holotype of Epictia septemlineata sp. nov. (CORBIDI 14683); Lateral (D), dorsal (E) and ventral (F) views of head of Holotype of Epictia vanwallachi sp. nov. (CORBIDI 14682); Lateral (G), dorsal (H) and ventral (I) views of head of Paratype of Epictia antoniogarciai sp. nov. (ZFMK 90934).

FIGURE 3. Type locality and habitat of Epictia septemlineata sp. nov. (CORBIDI 14683); village of Limon, Celendín Province, Cajamarca Region, Peru (A), grainfield were the holotype was found (B).

FIGURE 8. Type localities of Epictia septemlineata sp. nov. (Red star), Epictia vanwallachi sp. nov. (Green star), Epictia antoniogarciai sp. nov. (Yellow star) and locality of paratypes of Epictia antoniogarciai sp. nov. (Yellow dot) in the Northern Peruvian Andes.