Palmer’s Snail-Eater

diagnosis

Diagnosis. Dipsas palmeri differs from all described species of Dipsas based on the following combination of characters: (1) 15 / 15 / 15 smooth dorsals with enlarged vertebral row; (2) one loreal and one preocular in contact with orbit; (3) 8 - 10 supralabials with (usually) 4 th to 6 th contacting orbit; (4) one pair of infralabials in contact behind symphysial; (5) 172 - 202 ventrals in males, 181 - 200 in females; (6) 91 - 118 divided subcaudals in males, 86 - 102 in females; (7) dorsal and ventral ground color light brown with various degrees of fine black speckling and with 32 - 41 brown to blackish, white-edged circular blotches that are longer than interspaces in the first half of the body, but shorter in the second half (Figs 1 r, s); adult head gray with different degrees of whitish edging on the labial scales, and a thin (1 - 2 scales long) white to light grayish brown irregular parietal collar; dorsal blotches incomplete ventrally, extending marginally onto ventrals but not fusing midventrally; (8) 215 - 907 mm SVL in males, 642 - 1187 mm in females; (9) 78 - 390 mm TL in males, 246 - 298 mm in females.

Systematics of South American snail-eating snakes (Serpentes, Dipsadini), with the description of five new species from Ecuador and Peru

distribution

Distribution. Eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes south of the Jatunyacu-Napo river valley in Ecuador and north of the Huancabamba depression at elevations between 1211 and 2282 m (Fig. 4).

Systematics of South American snail-eating snakes (Serpentes, Dipsadini), with the description of five new species from Ecuador and Peru