Systematics of the Neotropical Snake Dendrophidion percarinatum (Serpentes: Colubridae), With Descriptions of Two New Species from Western Colombia and Ecuador and Supplementary Data on D. brunneum

Abstract

Abstract Dendrophidion percarinatum (Cope) is redefined on the basis of standard and new characters to distinguish it from two new South American species with which it has previously been confused. The redefined D. percarinatum is distributed from Honduras through Central America to western Colombia, with a seemingly outlying locality in extreme western Venezuela. One new species, D. prolixum, is sympatric with D. percarinatum at a few localities in central western Colombia and the distribution of the new species continues southward into northwestern Ecuador. A second new species, D. graciliverpa, occurs throughout western Ecuador, where its distribution extensively overlaps that of D. brunneum (Gunther). Hemipenes of the two new species are unusually long and slender (gracile morphotype), a morphology distinct from other described Dendrophidion hemipenes, which are shorter and more robust (robust morphotype). Additionally, the new species differ from D. percarinatum in color patterns but not in standard ...