Wagler's Ground Snake

discussion

Remarks: This specimen is probably lost. Humbo is a police inspection of the municipality of Quípama, Boyacá (IGAC 1996). Passos and Arredondo (2009) give the approximate coordinates for this locality (05 ° 36´N, 74 ° 16´W) 1000 meters elevation. However, this number is tagged to another specimen, A. manizalensis (Prado 1939). Specimen MLS 228 is hydrated and in good state of preservation.

Type specimens housed in the herpetological collections at Museo de La Salle Bogotá and their historical importance for the consolidation of herpetology in Colombia

type_taxon

Holotype MLS 228 (fig. 46), female. “ Humbo (Boyacá), Colombia ”.

Type specimens housed in the herpetological collections at Museo de La Salle Bogotá and their historical importance for the consolidation of herpetology in Colombia

description

Colour pattern in preservative: Dorsum of head black, covered with small beige dots above internasals, nasals, loreal, and prefrontals; background of head black to dorsal margins of supralabials; black descending postocular stripe reaching dorsal edge of sixth and anterior ventral margin of seventh supralabial; temporal region pigmented with irregular beige spots; median region of supralabials cream-white, except for sixth and seventh scales; mental region cream-white, occasionally with disperse black dots; preventrals uniformly cream; venter predominantly cream-white with irregular black dots for first 15 ventrals; venter becomes uniformly black before 15 th ventral, except for lateral margin of scales uniformly cream-white; tail black with lateral portion of subcaudals cream-white; dorsal ground colour of body black anteriorly, with cream-white complete transverse bands (one scale long), alternated on flanks; black interspaces (three to four scales long), reaching paraventral region; pale transverse bands of opposite sides connected middorsally only anteriorly, up to a point level with 20 th ventral; pale transverse bands increase in size at midbody (two scales long), with black

Rediscovery and redescription of the Andean earth-snake Atractus wagleri (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae)

diagnosis

Diagnosis: Atractus wagleri is distinguished from all congeners by the combination of the following characters: (1) 17 / 17 / 17 smooth dorsal scale rows; (2) two postoculars; (3) loreal long; (4) temporals 1 + 2; (5) seven supralabials, third and fourth contacting orbit; (6) seven infralabials, first three contacting chinshields; (7) six or seven maxillary teeth; (8) generally four gular scale rows; (9) four or five preventrals; (10) 174 – 180 ventrals in females, 157 – 174 in males; (11) 43 – 44 subcaudals in females, 46 – 56 in males; (12) dorsal ground colour in preservative cream-red with an irregular vertebral black stripe connected to lateral black blotches, constituting complete bands anteriorly and decreasing in size posteriorly; (13) venter black with paraventral region cream; (14) moderate body size, females reaching 437 mm SVL and males 445 mm SVL; (15) moderate tail length in females (13.6 – 15.3 % SVL) and long in male (21.61 % SVL); (16) hemipenis moderately bilobed, semicapitate, and semicalyculate. Comparisons: Among all congeners, Atractus wagleri occur parapatrically and shared a suite combination of characters with A. sanguineus: 17 dorsal scale rows, more than

Rediscovery and redescription of the Andean earth-snake Atractus wagleri (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae)