A New Genus and Species of Caecilian from the Sierra De Las Minas of Guatemala

Abstract

Minascaecilia sartoria, new species, include a small (less than 300 mm), attenuate body, 130-131 primary annuli, 81-83 secondary annuli, eye covered with bone, presence of splenial teeth, tentacle near the eye, and a free tongue, without narial plugs. M. sartoria resembles caeciliids of the genera Parvicaecilia, Microcaecilia, Oscaecilia and Caecilia (Taylor, 1968, 1969a; Nussbaum and Hoogmoed, 1979), but differs in combinations of characters. The geographic position of Minascaecilia represents a long extension (about 1,500 km) to the NW from the ranges of other members of this group; this gap seems to represent a genuine hiatus in the distributions of these genera of caecilians and not an artifact of collecting. However, see Relationships section for comments on a possible intervening form. This disjunct zoogeographic pattern is repeated by several other groups of amphibians and reptiles and suggests that various South American groups were able to disperse farther northward into Central America since the closing of the Panamanian portal in the Pliocene than previously thought. Their ranges seem to have become fragmented subsequently due to increasingly more arid conditions.