A new species of Sibon (Squamata: Colubroidea: Dipsadidae) from the Cordillera Central of western Panama, with comments on other species of the genus in the area

Abstract

We describe Sibon noalamina sp. nov. from the Caribbean versant of the Cordillera Central, in the Comarca Ngöbe-Bugléand the province of Veraguas of western Panama. Due to its coral snake-like, bicolored pattern, the new species superfi-cially resembles Sibon anthracops, Dipsas articulata, D. bicolor, D. temporalis, and D. viguieri. It differs from these spe-cies, and from all its congeners, by having only five supralabials, by the unique shape of the posterior supralabial, and bya slight keeling on some dorsal rows in adults. We discuss its conservation perspectives, and provide new distributional records for S. annulatus and S. longifrenis, as well as an updated key to the Lower Central American species of Sibon.