A new species of Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) from the Orinoquian region of Colombia

Juan José Torres-Ramírez,Mario Vargas-Ramírez,Teddy Angarita-Sierra

doi:10.3897/vertebrate-zoology.71.e59461

Abstract

In northern South America, amphisbaenians are rarely seen among the herpetofauna.Thus, general knowledge about them is very poor. During a herpetological survey in 2012 at Casanare, Colombia, we found two specimens of an unusual Amphisbaena. A third specimen sharing the same morphotype labeled Amphisbaena sp. from Vichada department was found deposided in an Colombian reptile collection. Based on morphological analyses together with phylogenetic analyses of 1029 base pairs of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we describe a new species of Amphisbaena that inhabits in the Orinoquian region of Colombia. The new species is part of a phylogenetic clade together with A. mertensii and A. cunhai (central-southern Brazil), exhibiting a great genetic distance (26.1–28.9%) between the newly identified lineage versus those taxa, and versus the sympatric taxa A. alba and A. fuliginosa. Morphologically, this new Amphisbaena can be distinguished from their congeners by characters combination of number of preocloacal pores, absence of malar scale, postgenial scales and body and caudal annuli counts. Amphisbaena gracilis is on morphology grounds the most similar species. However, the new species can be distinguished from it by having higher body annuli counts, angulus ories aliegned with the edges of the ocular scales and center of frontal scales, less number of large middorsal segments of the first and second body annulus, and rostral scale visible from above. The description of this new Amphisbaena species points out the urgent need to increase the knowledge of worm lizards in Colombia

Highlights

IntroductionAll species have burrowing habits, but some occasionally venture onto the surface or can be found under objects on the ground (Pough et al 1998)
Amphisbaenians are one of the most enigmatic and unusual squamates
Molecular and morphological evidence allowed us to confirm that Amphisbaena elbakyanae sp. nov. represents a new species of amphisbaenian from northern South America

Summary

Introduction

All species have burrowing habits, but some occasionally venture onto the surface or can be found under objects on the ground (Pough et al 1998). Due to its fossorial habit, cryptic behavior, secretive microhabitats and lower encounter rate, amphis-. Juan José Torres-Ramírez et al.: A new species of Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) of Colombia baenians are considered an elusive research objective. About 102 species of the genus Amphisbaena Linnaeus, 1758 have been described in South America (Gans 2005; Uetz et al 2020), with Brazil being the country with the highest diversity with over 80 species (Gans 2005; Gomes and Maciel 2012; Teixeira et al 2014; Uetz et al 2020)

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