Paraguayan Blackhead

distribution

Distribution. Known from Brazil and Paraguay (Plt. 229 A). In Brazil, known from the Pantanal and the southwestern portion of the Cerrado, including an isolated and questionable record in Ipanema Farm, Iperó, São Paulo state (Plt. 229 A), at intermediate elevations (Plt. 229 B). Previous maps and taxonomy in Lema et al. (2005 a). Observed in the field in open savannas on sandy soils (CS, pers. obs.).

Atlas of Brazilian Snakes: Verified Point-Locality Maps to Mitigate the Wallacean Shortfall in a Megadiverse Snake Fauna

diagnosis

Diagnosis. A species of Apostolepis with the following characters: (1) 15 / 15 / 15 dorsal scales; (2) preocular present, contacting nasal; (3) loreal absent; (4) temporals 1 + 0 or absent; (5) supralabials six, 2 nd- 3 rd entering orbit; (6) infralabials 6 - 7, 1 st- 4 th in contact with first pair of chinshields; (7) ventrals 219 - 244 (219 - 244 in males, 230 - 242 in females); (8) subcaudals 21 - 33 (28 - 33 in males, 21 - 26 in females), cloacal plate divided; (9) dorsal ground coloration uniformly red or orange with black markings; (10) ventral pattern uniformly yellow or red; (11) first 3 - 6 vertebrals black, nuchal collars and dorsal stripes absent; (12) distal black caudal blotch overlapping last 9 - 15 vertebrals and 7 - 11 subcaudals; (13) terminal scale white or bicolored black dorsally, white ventrally; (14) supralabial blotch large or small, up to four supralabial scales wide; (15) white blotch on rostral vestigial or absent; (16) SVL 390 - 600 mm, tail length 33 - 60 mm, tail is 8 - 10 % of total length and SVL is 90 - 92 % of total length.

Redescription of Apostolepis ambiniger (Peters, 1869) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae: Elapomorphini)

distribution

Geographic distribution. This species has been historically recorded in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay (Nogueira et al. 2019). The record from Argentina is based on a specimen (USNM 73458) from Estancia Breyer, Patquia, La Rioja; although this specimen clearly is A. ambiniger, its locality is determined here as incorrect, as other specimens from the same collector have been corrected as being from Paraguay (see Dixon and Hendricks 1979). Nogueira et al. (2019) present 11 records of the species for Brazil. However, except for one, none of these records are based on direct examination of specimens, and only a collection acronym is given in the appendix of specimens examined (ZUFMS), referring to the Colecao Zoologica Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul. To our knowledge, there are no specimens of A. ambiniger deposited in this collection, and this is further corroborated by the curator (Diego J. Santana, personal communication). The single vouchered record of A. ambiniger from Brazil reported by Nogueira et al. (2019) is a specimen (FMNH 69934) from " Fazenda Ipanema, " Varnhagem (currently Ipero municipality), Sao Paulo, Brazil. This specimen is reanalyzed here, and

Redescription of Apostolepis ambiniger (Peters, 1869) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae: Elapomorphini)