New Morphological Data and Geographic Distribution of the Worm Lizard Amphisbaena littoralis (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

In this study, we provide new morphological data, update geographic distribution, and discuss some issues of conservation of Amphisbaena littoralis, a poorly known species of northeastern Brazil. Meristic characters and patterns of head scalation match the published species diagnosis, but we observed some deviations from the type series. Thus, on the basis of the type series (n = 13) and newly examined material (n = 12), we propose the following redefinitions in some diagnostic characters of A. littoralis: snout–vent length 143–278 mm; tail length 19.3–70 mm; body annuli 251–270; tail annuli 29–34; dorsal and ventral segments of midbody annulus 19–22 and 20–24, respectively; precloacal pores 5–6 (usually 6); and supralabials 3–4 (usually 4). The new records are from eight localities in six municipalities along the coast of Rio Grande do Norte state, extending the known geographic distribution of A. littoralis ca. 172 km south from the type locality. On the basis of the minimum convex polygon method, we estimated the extent of occurrence of the species to be around 5,448 km2.