Brasilotyphlus braziliensis Dunn, 1945

Maciel, Adriano O. & Hoogmoed, Marinus S., 2011, Taxonomy and distribution of caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona) of Brazilian Amazonia, with a key to their identification, Zootaxa 2984, pp. 1-53 : 19-21

Brasilotyphlus braziliensis Dunn, 1945

Gymnopis braziliensis Dunn, 1945: 1 .

Brasilotyphlus braziliensis Taylor, 1968: 342 ; Taylor, 1971: Hoogmoed, 1979: 273; Frost, 1985: 625; Rodrigues et al., 2004; Senaris & MacCullough, 2005: 23; Frost, 2008; Maciel et al., 2009: 19.

Brazilotyphlus: Lescure & Renous, 1988: 24.

Brasilotyphlus: Lescure & Renous, 1988: 30 .

Diagnosis. Maximum known TL 260 mm ( Taylor, 1968). PA 142–147. SG 23–36. A weak vertical keel present on the terminal part of the body in most specimens. Maxillary teeth may reach the level of the anterior border of the choanae in some specimens, but do not extend posteriorly of them. Dermal scales present in most of the annular grooves; first scales behind the 25th PA.

Description. TL 43–48.7 times (46.14 ± 2.5; n = 5) BW. Head slightly narrower than body. Snout projecting distinctly beyond mouth. Nuchal grooves may be distinct dorsally and ventrally, except the third nuchal groove that ventrally is incomplete; the second collar partially fused below with the first primary annulus; a dorsal transverse groove is present on each collar, shorter and less distinctly pronounced on the first. Body subcylindrical, slightly wider than deep. Width along the body may vary slightly.

Primary annular grooves completely encircling the body, except for the three anterior ones that are ventrally interrupted, and some ventrally incomplete at midbody and those interrupted by the vent. At the most seven secondary grooves are complete. Small terminal shield present. No annuli posterior of the vent. Vent transverse, may be slightly irregularly shaped (e.g. eleven anal denticulations in MZUSP 63097), five anterior and six posterior. Dermal scales starting at 25th annulus, maximally five rows of scales per body fold ( Taylor, 1971); in MZUSP 63097 SI = 36 and there are at most five rows of dermal scales per fold at the posteriormost part of the body. Size of dermal scales and number of rows per fold increasing posteriorly. PMT monocuspid, forming a series with maximally 25 teeth, little variation in size, posterior maxillary teeth slightly smaller, extending to the level of the posterior border of the choanae. Maximally twelve, bicuspid, equally sized PVT. Maximally 14 bicuspid PT, forming a slightly curved series, teeth smaller than PMT. Maximally 18 monocuspid DT, approximately same size as PMT series.

Color. In preservative brownish with the lateral and ventral surface of the body slightly paler than the dorsum ( Taylor, 1971). This pattern was also observed in a recently collected specimen in preservative ( Maciel et al., 2009).

Variation. For variation in measurements and meristic characters see Table 8 .

continued next page TABLE 8 . (continued) B. braziliensis B. guarantanus

Distribution. Type locality (municipality of Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil). Also known from 70 km north of Manaus, Reserva do Gavião INPA/WWF, state of Amazonas, Brazil ( Fig. 11 ). Frost (1985, 2008), Rodrigues et al. (2004) and Senaris & MacCulloch (2005) incorrectly included Amap and, in the case of Rodrigues et al. (2004), also Roraima in the distribution. The material on which those records possibly (registration numbers were not mentioned by the cited authors) were based (MZUSP 57073–57079; 64829) are misidentified specimens of Microcaecila sp.

Figures

FIGURE 11. Distribution of Brasilotyphlus. Circles represent B. braziliensis and squares are B. guarantanus. Open symbols correspond to data from literature. 1. Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil (Type Locality of B. braziliensis); 2 Reserva do Gavião INPA / WWF, Amazonas, Brazil; 3. Guarantã do Norte, Mato Grosso, Brazil (Type Locality of B. guarantanus); 4 Parauapebas, Pará, Brazil.

Tables

TABLE 8. Morphometric (in mm) and meristic data (range, mean ± standard deviation and sample size in parenthesis) of Brasilotyphlus braziliensis (data from Taylor 1968 plus MZUSP 63097) and B. guarantanus.

	B. braziliensis	B. guarantanus
TL	147–260 204.2±37.1 (5)	164–305 235.9±42.3 (48)
HW	2.7–5.1 3.9±0.7 (5)	2.5–4.2 3.5±0.3 (48)
HL	4.5 (1)	3.8–6.2 4.9±0.8 (48)
HH	2 (1)	1.5–3.4 2.5±0.9 (42)
BW	3–6 4.4±1 (5)	3.3–4.9 4.1±1.6 (41)
BH	2.8 (1)	2.7–4.3 3.5±1.6 (36)
WNC	2.9 (1)	2.7–4.5 3.7±0.9 (47)
WTR	3.1 (1)	2.9–4.7 3.9±1.2 (45)
WV	1.6 (1)	1.6–2.9 2.3±0.7 (45)
TT	2.6 (1)	2.2–3.4 2.9±0.6 (47)
TN	1.5–2.6 1.9±0.3 (5)	1.3–2.4 1.8±0.3 (48)
TCM	0.8 (1)	0.8–1.6 1.1±0.2 (48)
TMM	0.2 (1)	0.2–0.5 0.3±0.1 (46)
NN	1.2 (1)	0.9–1.5 1.3±0.2 (48)
NMM	0.7 (1)	0.6–1.2 0.9±0.2 (46)
SP	1.2 (1)	0.8–1.5 1.1±0.2 (47)