Epictia vanwallachi, 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 : 233-235

Epictia vanwallachi sp. nov.

( Figures 2 D–F, 4)

Holotype: CORBIDI 14682, from Vijus Village, Pataz Province, La Libertad Region, Peru (S 07°43’11.6’’, W 077°39’51.1’’, 1290 m.a.s.l.), collected by E. Hoyas Granda, A. Beraún and C. Koch on 10 January 2010.

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) 188 mid-dorsal scale rows; (6) dorsal scales of head, body and tail brown with thin white or yellowish margins; (7) rostral uniformly grayish-brown; (8) terminal spine dorsally and ventrally and last three subcaudals yellow; (9) ventral scales of head, body and tail grayish-brown with creamishwhite margins.

Comparisons [conditions for other Epictia in brackets]: By having 188 mid-dorsal scales, the new species has a higher number than E. collaris [155–166] and a lower number than E. albipuncta [213–285], E. alfredschmidti [267–279], E. borapeliotes [256–282], E. columbi [240–265], E. diaplocia [205–233], E. subcrotilla [318–333], E. melanura [395–396], E. rufidorsa [255–270], E. septemlineata [257], E. striatula [216–265], E. teaguei [232–259], E. tenella [198–299], E. tesselata [258–283] 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 lacking a yellow dorsal blotch on the anterior region of the head this species differs from Epictia septemlineata , E. alfredschmidti , 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 . It further differs from E. septemlineata [dorsum with seven black longitudinal stripes] and E. rubrolineata [dorsum red with 5 longitudinal black stripes] by having a color pattern with grayish-brown dorsal scales with thin white or yellowish margins.

Description of holotype: An adult specimen with SVL of 99 mm; TAL of 8.1 mm; MB of 2.9 mm; MT of 2.2 mm; TL/TAL of 13.2; TL/MB of 36.9; HW of 2.6 mm; HH of 1.7 mm; HL of 2.6 mm; DSN of 0.8 mm; DNE of 0.6 mm; ED of 0.4 mm. Head subcylindrical, slightly depressed dorsoventrally, hardly distinguishable from neck; body cylindrical; slightly tapered cranially and caudally. Snout slightly sloped in lateral view, rounded in ventral view. Rostral visible in dorsal view, about 1.4 times longer than wide, almost squared ventrally, triangular dorsally with dorsal termination (apex) acute, almost reaching the imaginary transverse line between the anterior borders of eyes, contacting upper and lower nasal laterally and frontal dorsally.

Nasal completely divided horizontally by a suture slightly oblique, reaching rostral and first supralabial; ellipsoid nostril located in the center of the suture and having the major axis oriented along the suture; supranasal about 1.5 times higher than wide and about 1.3 times higher than infranasal, contacting infranasal ventrally, first supralabial and supraocular posteriorly, and frontal dorsally; infranasal slightly higher than wide, about 1.7 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 about three times higher than wide, exceeding nostril, almost reaching central level of eye, in contact with supraocular scale dorsally and ocular posteriorly; ocular scale pentagonal with dorsal apex acuminate, 1.4 times higher than wide, contacting supraocular anterodorsally, parietal posterodorsally and second supralabial posteriorly; eye located slightly above level of maximum width of ocular and with lower eye margin at nostril level, positioned anteriorly without contacting scale sutures; eyes entirely visible in dorsal view; second supralabial triangular, about as wide as high, reaching central level of eye, as high as anterior supralabial, 3.3 times wider than anterior supralabial at widest point; posterior margin of second supralabial in broad contact with temporal and in 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, 2.5 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) only marginally imbricate, not decreasing in size posteriorly, hexagonal in dorsal view, except for pentagonal frontal, slightly higher but of same width 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 about 2.4 times higher than wide, marginally larger than occipital, both almost ovoid, oriented slightly oblique; lower margin of parietal contacting upper border 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, subequal in size; mental scale bell-shaped, excluded from infralabial border by the first two pairs of infralabial scales; first pair of infralabials triangular, distinctly larger than other infralabials; chin, gular, and dorsal and lateral head scales porous.

Dorsal scales slightly imbricate, smooth, homogeneous, rhomboid in shape, about 1.6 times wider than long; 188 MDS; 14–14–14 D; 171 V; 10 TS; Anal plate large, twice as wide as long, almost triangular in shape, bordered anteriorly and posteriorly by five rows of scales; 16 SC, becoming smaller distally; each of last four scales on the dorsal surface of the tail fused with adjacent dorsolateral scales; terminal spine conical and strongly pointed, with stout base about as wide as long.

Color of holotype in life: Rostral uniformly grayish-brown; dorsal scales from head, body, and tail brown; ventral scales from head, body and tail grayish-brown; both dorsal and ventral scales of head body and tail with thin creamish-white margins; terminal spine and last three subcaudals yellow, strongly mottled with brown dorsally and ventrally.

Color of holotype in preservative: Rostral gray; dorsal scales from head and body brown with cream margins, yellow regions of terminal portion of tail changed to whitish cream; ventral surface of head, body and tail changed to sandy brown with cream margins.

Etymology. This species name is a patronym for Van Wallach, American herpetologist, in recognition of his outstanding contributions towards systematics of the snake family Leptotyphlopidae .

Distribution and natural history. Epictia vanwallachi is only known from the type locality in the interandean part of the Equatorial Dry Forest ( Figs. 5 and 8 ).

The specimen was collected under a stone on 10 January 2010 at 9:55 pm, with air temperature of 25.8°C and air humidity of 60%.

Remarks. This species does not have striped pattern and multiple colors as mentioned by Adalsteinsson et al. (2009) as diagnostic characters for the genus Epictia , but it shares all other diagnostic characters with its congeners.

Figures

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 5. Habitat of Epictia vanwallachi sp. nov.

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.