Epictia venegasi Koch, Cruz & Cárdenas, 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Koch, Claudia
name: Cruz, Roy Santa
name: Cárdenas, Heidy
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Leptotyphlopidae
Epictia
Epictia venegasi

description: Epictia venegasi sp. nov.
(Figures 1A–D, 2–9, Table 1)
Holotype: MUSA 4252, from Cachachi-Moyan, Province Cajabamba, Region Cajamarca, Peru (07°37'2.348’’ S, 078°10'47.565’’ W, 2551 m a.s.l.) collected by R. Santa Cruz and H. Cardenas on 21 March 2015.
Paratypes (8): MUSA 4248, from Cachachi-Moyan, Province Cajabamba, Region Cajamarca, Peru (07°37’6.354’’ S, 078°10’48.452’’ W, 2567 m a.s.l.) collected by R. Santa Cruz and H. Cardenas on 21 March 2015; MUSA 4237, MUSA 4238, MUSA 4239, MUSA 4240, MUSA 4241, MUSA 4242, MUSA 4253, from Cachachi-Moyan, Province Cajabamba, Region Cajamarca, Peru (07°37' S, 078°11’ W, 2672–2736 m a.s.l.) collected by R. Santa Cruz and H. Cardenas on 22 March 2015.
Diagnosis. (1) 14 midbody scale rows; (2) 10 midtail scale rows; (3) usually 2 supralabials, anterior one larger and in broad contact with supraocular in most of the specimens; (4) 17–19 subcaudals; (5) 211–221 mid-dorsal scale rows; (6) each body scale black on anterior half, yellow on posterior half, on dorsal surface of body with black margins and yellowish margins ventrally; (7) eyes usually entirely visible in dorsal view; (8) bright yellow blotch on dorsal surface of rostral; (9) terminal part of tail yellow; (10) distributed> 2000 m a.s.l.
Comparisons [conditions for other Epictia species in brackets]: By having 10 midtail scale rows this species differs from E. albipuncta, E. striatula, E. unicolor and E. weyrauchi [all having 12]. The presence of a frontal scale differentiates the new species from E. ater (including E. nasalis) and E. bakewelli. The number of 211–221 mid–dorsal scales, distinguishes it from E. alfredschmidti [267–279], E. antoniogarciai [195–208], E. australis [233–282], E. bakewelli [225–262], E. borapeliotes [256–282], E. clinorostris [240–256], E. collaris [155–166], E. columbi [242–265], E. goudotii [224–260], E. hobartsmithi [191–208], E. melanura [395–396], E. peruviana [185–199], E. rufidorsa [256–270], E. septemlineata [257], E. subcrotilla [318–333], E. teaguei [223–259], E. tesselata [261–273], E. tricolor [276–310], E. unicolor [246], E. vanwallachi [188], and E. vellardi [224–255]. The number of 17–19 subcaudal scales differentiates this species from E. alfredschmidti [14–16], E. clinorostris [10– 16], E. columbi [22–25], E. munoai [10–14], E. nasalis [21], E. rubrolineata [15], E. septemlineata [16], E. vanwallachi [16], and E. vellardi [13–16]. By the presence of a yellow dorsal blotch on the rostral this species further differs from E. columbi, E. rufidorsa, E. vanwallachi, and E. weyrauchi, and the presence of a yellow terminal spine distinguishes it from E. columbi, E. melanura, E. munoai, E. rufidorsa, and E. septemlineata. By lacking a striped dorsal color pattern the new species can be distinguished from E. albifrons, E. albipuncta, E. alfredschmidti, E. amazonica, E. australis, E. bakewelli, E. borapeliotes, E. clinorostris, E. diaplocia, E. fallax, E. goudotii, E. magnamaculata, E. melanoterma, E. munoai, E. phenops, E. rubrolineata, E.rufidorsa, E. septemlineata, E. subcrotilla, E. striatula, E. teaguei, E. tenella, E. tesselata, E. tricolor, E. undecimstriata, and E. vellardi. The color pattern where each body scale is black on the anterior half and yellow on the posterior half, with black margins dorsally and yellowish margins ventrally differentiates the species from E. antoniogarciai [dorsal body scales black, each scale with yellowish-white or bright yellow outlines], E. ater [blackish-brown to blackish above; ventral surface a lighter brown], E. collaris [color brown, dorsally slightly darker than ventrally; all scales with a dark-brown area at the base and a light-brown posterior edge], E. columbi [dorsal scales very dark brown in solid color without lines, punctuations or light borders], E. melanura [general color brown, a little lighter beneath, the outlines of the scales lighter], E. nasalis [above light brown, the color lighter on the ventral surface], E. peruviana [dorsum and venter uniformly dark reddish, each scale with thin white outlines], E. signata [dorsal scale rows uniformly brown, ventral scales light brown], E. unicolor [reddish-brown, each scale edged light-colored], and E. vanwallachi [dorsal scales brown with thin white or yellowish outlines].
Description of Holotype. A large adult specimen with SVL of 179.6 mm; TAL of 12.8 mm; MB of 3.8 mm; MT of 2.8 mm; TL/TAL of 14.7; TL/MB of 47.3; HW of 3.6 mm; HH of 2.7 mm; HL of 3.7 mm; DSN of 0.6 mm; DNE of 0.7 mm; ED of 0.7 mm. Head almost cylindrical, hardly distinguishable from neck; body cylindrical; not tapered cranially or caudally. Snout rounded in lateral and ventral view. Rostral visible in dorsal view, triangular dorsally with dorsal termination (apex) acute, almost squared ventrally, reaching the imaginary transverse line between the anterior borders of the eyes, contacting upper and lower nasals laterally and frontal dorsally.
Nasal completely divided horizontally by an oblique suture, reaching rostral and first supralabial; ellipsoid nostril located in the center of the suture between upper and lower nasal, having the major axis oriented along the suture; supranasal contacting rostral anteriorly, infranasal ventrally, first supralabial, supraocular, and on left side preocular posteriorly, and frontal dorsally; infranasal contacting first supralabial posteriorly; two supralabial scales positioned anterior and posterior to ocular scale (1+1), respectively, resulting in an upper lip border formed by rostral, infranasal, anterior supralabial, ocular, and posterior supralabial; first supralabial, 1.9 times higher than wide, exceeding nostril, reaching central level of eye, dorsally acuminate and in contact with supraocular scale on right side of head and contacting preocular on left side of head; second supralabial subtrapezoidal, 1.2 times wider than high, slightly exceeding central level of eye, about as high as and at widest point 2.6 times wider than first supralabial; posterior margin of second supralabial in broad contact with temporal and in contact with first scale of lateral body row, dorsal margin in contact with parietal; temporal scale of same size as dorsal scales of lateral rows; ocular scale pentagonal with dorsal apex acuminate, 1.2 times higher than wide, contacting anteriorly first supralabial and on left side also preocular, anterodorsally supraocular, posterodorsally parietal and dorsally second supralabial; eye located slightly above level of maximum width of ocular, with lower eye margin slightly lower than nostril level, positioned anteriorly and almost contacting scale sutures; eyes entirely visible in dorsal view; supraocular scale oriented oblique, almost twice as long as wide on right side and 1.6 times longer than wide on left side, contacting posteriorly parietal and postfrontal, dorsally frontal; supraocular, parietal and occipital scales visible in lateral view; mid-dorsal head plates (frontal, postfrontal, interparietal, and interoccipital) marginally imbricate, subhexagonal, with interparietal and postfrontal being slightly larger than the other two scales; middorsal head plates narrower and slightly higher than posterior mid-dorsal scales; frontal contacting rostral, supranasals, supraoculars, and postfrontal; postfrontal contacting frontal, supraoculars, parietals, and interparietal; interparietal contacting postfrontal, parietals, occipitals, and interoccipital; interoccipital contacting interparietal, occipitals, nuchal and first pair of paravertebral dorsal scales; parietal about as large as occipital, both polygonal and about 1.5 times higher than wide; lower margin of parietal contacting upper border of posterior supralabial and temporal, posterior margin in broad contact with occipital, dorsal margin contacting postfrontal and interparietal, anterior margin in broad contact with ocular and supraocular; lower margin of occipital contacting temporal and first scale of lateral body row, posterior margin in broad contact with first paravertebral and first scale of dorsolateral body row, dorsal margin in contact with interparietal and interoccipital, anterior margin in broad contact with parietal; four infralabials per side, subequal in size, first three higher than wide, fourth wider than high; mental scale small, lunulate; first two pairs of infralabials almost rectangular, larger than third infralabials; labials, chin and gular scales, and dorsal and lateral head scales porous.
Dorsal scales imbricate, smooth, homogeneous, rhomboid or elliptical in shape, almost as wide as long; 217 MDS; 14-14-14 D; 201 V; 10 TS; Anal plate large, subtriangular in shape, almost twice as wide as long, bordered anteriorly by five and posteriorly by six scales; 19 SC, becoming successively narrower distally, except for ultimate four scales which are each fused with adjacent scales; last four scales on the dorsal surface of the tail each fused with adjacent dorsolateral scales; apical spine strongly pointed.
Color of holotype in life. Anterior dorsal portion of rostral bright yellow; posterior 1/5 of rostral, and supranasal and infranasal scales yellow, slightly mottled with greyish-brown; ventral part of rostral greyish-brown, slightly mottled with yellow; supraoculars, frontal, oculars and first supralabials strongly mottled with greyishbrown on a yellowish ground color; interparietal, interoccipital and dorsal parts of parietals, occipitals and second supralabials even stronger mottled with dark brown on a yellowish ground color; lower parts of parietals, occipitals and second supralabials, and dorsal part of temporal bright yellow; most outlines of head scales dark, except for nasal suture; scales of body and tail blackish-brown in anterior half, bright yellow in posterior half, with blackishbrown outlines dorsally and yellowish outlines ventrally; anal plate mostly blackish-brown, slightly mottled with yellow; ultimate part of tail with a bright yellow spot covering apical spine and one adjacent ventral scale row.
Color of holotype in preservative. Yellow coloration changed to cream or beige; blackish-brown coloration changed to dark brown.
Variation (Tab. 1). The paratype series consists of six adult and two juvenile specimens (MUSA 4242, MUSA 4248), which vary from the holotype in the following characters: 211–221 MDS; 196–206 V; 17–19 SC; SVL of 122.9–167.5 mm in adults and 81.8–89.7 mm in juveniles; TAL of 8.8–11.7 mm in adults and 6–6.8 mm in juveniles; MB of 2.8–3.9 mm in adults and 2-2.3 mm in juveniles; MT of 2–2.4 mm in adults and 1.7 mm in juveniles; TL/TAL of 12.4–15.3; TL/MB of 39–44.1; HW of 2.8–3.6 mm in adults and 1.9–2 mm in juveniles; HH of 1.8–2.8 mm in adults and 1.4–1.5 mm in juveniles; HL of 3.2–4.2 mm in adults and 2.7 mm in juveniles; DSN of 0.5–0.6 mm in adults and 0.4 mm in juveniles; DNE of 0.6–0.8 mm in adults and 0.5 mm in juveniles; ED of 0.6– 0.8 mm in adults and 0.4–0.5 mm in juveniles; both juvenile paratypes only have one supralabial (anterior), as the scale posterior to the ocular scale (usually second supralabial) is completely fused with the fourth infralabial and the fissure of the mouth just ends where the second supralabial would begin.
Color pattern of paratypes mostly resembles that of the holotype except for the following: in most paratypes the head scales are generally darker, with less yellow parts than in the holotype, being even entirely dark in some specimens, except for the yellow blotch on the rostral, the yellow lower parts of the parietals, occipitals and second supralabials, and the yellow dorsal parts of the temporals; one juvenile specimen (MUSA 4242) even lacks a yellow blotch on the rostral; in half of the paratypes the dorsal scales of body and tail are yellow in anterior half and blackish-brown in posterior half; in one specimen (MUSA 4240) the scale coloration of the anterior dorsal body is just as described, changing to that of the holotype in the more posterior part of the body; in some paratypes the dark part of each scale takes more than half of the scales, especially in anterior part of the body, the ventral scales may be almost entirely dark, except for the light outlines; the anal plate may be mostly blackish-brown, or dark in anterior part and yellow in posterior part; up to three ventral scale rows may be yellow on terminal part of the tail, adjacent to the apical spine.
Etymology. The species name venegasi is a noun (genitive case) and a patronym for Pablo Venegas, Peruvian herpetologist, in recognition of his important contributions to the systematics of amphibians and reptiles from his home country.
Distribution and natural history. This species is endemic to the northern Peruvian Andes and so far only known from the type locality in the Region Cajamarca at elevations between 2551–2736 m a.s.l. All individuals were found in March 2015 between 8:40 am and 2:30 pm under stones in shrubland or rocky mountain habitat (Figure 10).
description: Published as part of Koch, Claudia, Cruz, Roy Santa & Cárdenas, Heidy, 2016, Two new endemic species of Epictia Gray, 1845 (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae) from Northern Peru, pp. 101-122 in Zootaxa 4150 (2) on pages 103-113, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4150.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/261132